Hours before meeting US National Security Advisor John Bolton, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is acting, and will continue to act, against Iranian military entrenchment in Syria.
“We are acting against any actor that is undermining or trying to undermine Israel's security,” he said at the outset of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting.
Netanyahu said he will discuss with Bolton, whom he called an “old friend,” the situation in Syria and efforts to stop Iranian aggression in the region.
He said the assessment of the situation in Syria comes after US President Donald Trump’s decision last month to withdraw America's 2,000 troops from the country, and after a phone conversation he had on Friday regarding the situation in Syria with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Bolton arrived on Saturday evening, and is scheduled to meet Netanyahu Sunday night. He was last in Israel in August, and this will be his second visit to the country since taking over as National Security Advisor in April. He will travel from Israel to Turkey for talks there expected as well to focus on the situation in Syria.
The US and Turkey have long been at odds over Syria, with Washington supporting the YPG Kurdish militia -- which Ankara views as an enemy - in the fight against Islamic State. It is widely feared that the US withdrawal of troops from Syria will leave the Kurds there vulnerable to Turkish military action.
In addition to Bolton’s visit to Jerusalem and Ankara to discuss US troop withdrawal, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will embark Tuesday on a regional tour to Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia , Oman and Kuwait to do the same.
Netanyahu met Pompeo last Tuesday in Brasilia on the sidelines of the inauguration of new President Jair Bolsonaro, and the US secretary of state staid that the withdrawal of the US troops in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside Israel.”
Pompeo said “the counter-ISIS campaign continues, our efforts to counter Iranian aggression continue, and our commitment to Middle East stability and the protection of Israel continues in the same way” as it did before the decision to withdraw the US troops was made.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
