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Israel's Intelligence Ministry Eyes Iran

(Cipher Brief) Kimberly Dozier - "Right now, our number one goal is to prevent Iran from basing itself militarily in Syria," the director of Israel's Ministry of Intelligence, Chagai Tzuriel, said during the recent German Marshall Forum in Brussels. If the U.S. doesn't find a way to keep Iran from building military bases in Syria, Israel may well have to be the "other people" Trump referred to who will have to "take care of it." "If they start building air, sea and ground bases for them and Shi'ite militias, a forward base like they built in Lebanon with Hizbullah, we have made clear we will not accept the situation," Tzuriel said. "We have presented it as a red line." This is on top of the previous red lines: no transfer of advanced weapons to Syria; no violation of sovereignty of Israeli territory in the Golan Heights; and no manufacture of chemical weapons. Tzuriel noted that "The Russians, having had a very formidable achievement in Syria, are not interested in destabilizing their achievement. They understand that if the Iranian proxy presence in Syria is a source of friction and tension and a potential flashpoint, they can also be a constructive player and can play a limiting and restraining role vis-a-vis Iran and Hizbullah."
2018-04-05 00:00:00
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