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Monday, January 16, 2017
Israel’s Invisible Presence in Astana (Syria talks) Guaranteed by Russia

Israel’s Invisible Presence in Astana Guaranteed by Russia
Nazir Majli Asharq Al Awsat 16 January 2017
http://english.aawsat.com/2017/01/article55365653/israels-invisible-presence-astana-guaranteed-russia

Tel Aviv – Israel is optimistic regarding Russia’s position concerning
Israel’s interests, according to Israeli military and political officials.

Even if Israel didn’t attend the Astana talks to settle the Syrian case, its
position will be represented for two reasons: attacks near Damascus, and the
positive development of relations between Russian President Vladimir Putin
and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the officials.

Netanyahu is constantly contacting Putin, even before and after the attacks
on Mezzeh military airport which were accredited to Israel.

Highly informed Israeli sources said that this will be discussed during the
talks on Syria’s future – expected to start on January 23 in Astana.

Sources added that Israel wasn’t invited to this conference, but it is
making sure that its presence is felt there through all possible channels,
and thus conveying a message that no agreement can be reached, especially
concerning Golan Heights, without taking Israeli interests into account.

After Aleppo, Russians began preparing for the summit in Kazakhstan, and
once again a new report surfaced saying that Israel had attacked Syria, with
all Russian media quoting the official statement from Damascus. But what is
more important is that for the first time a Russian official speaks of the
attack and is surprisingly understanding of Israel’s position.

State Duma Deputy and Deputy Chairman of Committee on International Affairs
Andrey Klimov was quoted in the semi-official Izvestia newspaper saying that
Israel uses the armed forces against organization considered a threat to its
security. He also accused Hezbollah without naming it explicitly saying:
“Tel Aviv is fighting against terrorist organizations engaged in the war in
Syria.”

Israeli officials believe that this is an official Russian hint to Iranians,
and Hezbollah, that they disagree with Moscow concerning arrangements in
Syria.

Israel’s benefit is evident here: to deter any attempts that the Syrian
regime might try to take control over Golan Heights, whether through war or
dialogue with the opposition.

Officials also declared that unlike similar incidents in the past, Syrians
are trying to gain politically from this attack pointing fingers at Israel
and addressing the Security Council saying the Tel Aviv used F-35 warplanes
in the attack. But, F-35 doesn’t exactly present new technologies that
Israel doesn’t already have, and Israel doesn’t need new planes that haven’t
gained any experience around the world in action.

“It seems as though Syrians want to embarrass the U.S. administration by
saying: you gave Israel developed weapons, and they directly used it to
aggravate the conflict in the Middle East,” according to an Israeli
official.

Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson had warned U.S. and coalition
forces of attacking Syrian regime targets. As for the Israeli attacks,
Moscow is currently ignoring them.

All of this consequently leads to the belief that there are silent
agreements between Tel Aviv and Moscow. Other than the agreement on avoiding
airplanes of both armies from attacking one another, the content of this
pact isn’t very clear.

Those agreements had been reached during the exchanged phone calls between
Putin and Netanyahu and especially during the meeting between Israeli
Commander of Air Force Maj-Gen Amir Eshel and Russian Chief of Staff.

We can then deduce that Russia understands what are the Israeli red lines
and interests in Syria.

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