Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday said Israel has detected efforts by Iran-backed terror groups to establish infrastructure in southwestern Syria, under the cover of dictator Bashar Assad’s renewed offensive against two rebel-held provinces in the area.
“We are seeing efforts by figures associated with the [Iran-led] axis, with permission from the regime, to establish terrorist infrastructure here in the Syrian Golan Heights,” Liberman said during a tour of the border with Syria.
“In our view, this is unacceptable, and we will act forcefully against all terrorist infrastructure that we see and identify in the area,” he said.
Liberman would not elaborate on the nature of the “terrorist infrastructure,” but reiterated that Israel was holding Syria responsible for it as well.
“I don’t want to go into more detail than what I’ve said. We are seeing preparation, an effort by forces connected to the [Iran-led] axis to establish terrorist infrastructure, and we are determined to not allow that. Period,” he said. “Everyone will take responsibility, everyone will pay the price, including the regime.”
In a short press conference after a tour of the border and meetings with IDF regional commanders, the defense minister also warned Assad’s forces against entering the demilitarized zone along the border with Israel, indicating that those who do so would be attacked.
“In our view, the entry of Syrian forces into the buffer zone — any Syrian soldier who finds himself in the buffer zone is endangering their life,” he said.
Liberman added that Israel was prepared to take action not only against terror groups but also against Assad’s regime, which “is responsible and will bear that responsibility and pay a heavy price for cooperating with members of the axis.”
The defense minister added that Israel was not dismissing out of hand the possibility for some kind of normalization with the Assad regime in the form of opening the Quneitra Crossing between the two countries.
“I believe that we are far from that, but I am not ruling anything out,” he said.
Israel has long stated that it will not allow Iran to set up a permanent military presence in Syria and is prepared to take military action to prevent such a situation.
Militarily, Israel has sought to counter the alleged Iranian entrenchment through airstrikes and other measures. Diplomatically, Jerusalem has tried to get the Islamic Republic out of Syrian by appealing to the two main power-brokers in the region: Russia and the United States.
While Russia does not seem to have accepted Israel’s demand for Iran to be completely removed from Syria, it has agreed to force the Islamic Republic’s forces and proxies to leave the areas closest to the border with Israel. According to some reports, pro-Iranian forces would be required to stay 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from the border; others indicate that range would be set at 80 kilometers (50 miles).
On Tuesday, Liberman reiterated Israel’s opposition to any Iranian military presence in Syria.
“The very fact of Iranian presence in Syria is, in our view, unreasonable. We are not prepared to accept Iranian presence in any part of Syria and, as I’m sure you’ve heard more than once, we will act against Iranian entrenchment in Syria,” he said.
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