Illustrative image. (Israeli Defense Forces)
United States envoy to Syria Tom Barrack and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached several understandings with regard to Syria during a meeting on December 15, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Netanyahu met Barrack in his Jerusalem office alongside Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, acting National Security Adviser Gil Reich, Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, and Ambassador to Washington Yechiel Leiter.
The talks were not limited to Syria. The situation in Lebanon, Turkey’s influence in the region and normalization with Saudi Arabia were also discussed.
According to the Jerusalem Post, Barrack and Netanyahu agreed during the meeting on Israel’s “freedom of operation” in Syria, while also continuing efforts to reach a “security deal” with the country’s Islamist-led Interim Government.
Israeli officials at the meeting reportedly told their U.S. counterparts that Syrian security forces “cannot be relied upon” citing the December 13 attack in which a Syrian security officer, believed to be a member of ISIS, killed two U.S. soldiers and a translator near the city of Palmyra in the center of the country.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials reportedly requested that Israel coordinate its activities in Syria with the country’s government forces and give them a chance to impose order.
Following the fall of the regime of former President Bashar al-Assad more than a year ago, Israel invaded the buffer zone adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights in Quneitra. Since then, Israeli troops have been conducting operations there on a regular basis.
Just a few days before the meeting in Jerusalem, Israeli troops opened fire wounding three Syrians during an operation in the town of Khan Arnabeh in the governorate of Quneitra.
Even when Barrack and Netanyahu were meeting, Israeli troops detained three men from the town of Al-Hamidiyah in Quneitra. They were all released later that day.
The situation did not change after the meeting, which confirms that the U.S. has accepted Israel’s demands when it comes to Syria. Just a day later, the Israeli military shelled the outskirts of the town of Jamla in the governorate of Daraa. The targets were positions of Syrian security forces, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which didn’t report any casualties.
While the U.S. appears working to build an alliance with the Syrian government, going as far as incorporating it in the anti-ISIS coalition, Israel remains skeptical.
A security agreement between Israel and Syria remains highly-unlikely. Washington is also clearly unwilling to pressure Netanyahu over the issue in any way. Eventually, the U.S. will likely align its policy on the country with that of Israel especially that state-building efforts there are failing in many ways. There is still no sense of national unity or full sovereignty, and Islamists are keeping a tight grip on power.
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