Israeli-Russian South Syria agreement not accepted by US

Walid al-Moualem also said the United States must withdraw from the Tanf base in the southeast.

Al-Moallem said that only when US troops withdraw from the Tanf area near the Jordanian border can an agreement be discussed.

“Moscow said it understands the Israeli demands for withdrawing Iranian forces and their militias from Syria”, the sources said.

As the Syrian regime is building up for a major offensive in southern Syria, Israel has been pressuring Iran to leave Syria so it will not continue to benefit from the regime’s gains.

He also repeated Tehran’s denial that it has military advisors in that part of Syria.

The Syrian president said his government had “opened doors to negotiation” with US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a predominantly Kurdish group that controls parts of northern Syria. The US troops will still stay in the area, Director of Joint Staff Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said on Friday, arguing that the US forces are involved in an important work of “maintaining” the local de-confliction zone.

Since March 30, at least 120 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more injured by the Israeli army’s gunfire near the Gaza-Israel border fence.

Next week, Netanyahu will leave for France and Germany to discuss Iran’s role in Syria and the nuclear deal which the Europeans are trying to salvage after the U.S. withdrawal earlier this month.

Meanwhile, Syrian Army forces are heading to southern Syria to combat militias.

Both the SDF and Russian-backed Syrian troops are engaged in separate operations against IS in east Syria, creating a highly volatile situation, where de-confliction mechanisms have already been tested several times.

“In talks this week between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuand Russian President Vladimir Putin, with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as well, Netanyahu stressed that Iran needs to leave all of Syria”, the official said.

Backed by Russian air power and Iranian and Hizbullah militias on the ground, Assad’s forces have gained significant ground in recent months in the seven-year civil war that has killed an estimated half a million people and driven another 5 million overseas as refugees.

That includes large parts of the north and east where U.S. special forces deployed during the fight against Islamic State, supporting the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Iran has no military advisers in southern Syria, a senior Iranian security official was quoted as saying on Saturday, adding that Tehran supports Russian efforts to bring the area under Syrian army control.

Long-simmering tensions between Israel and Iran in Syria stepped up considerably in recent months, beginning in February, when an Iranian drone carrying explosives was flown from the T-4 air base in central Syria into Israeli airspace, and was shot down by an IAF helicopter.