Netanyahu: Russia cannot push Iran out of Syria ‘on its own’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv continues to “work inside Syria” explaining that Russia cannot push Iranian and pro-Iranian forces out of Syria “on its own”.

“Israel carried out military operations in Syria in the period that followed the downing of the Russian aircraft in September,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying at a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee yesterday.

“Our intelligence planes are gathering information, and I do not want to talk about other operations in this context,” Netanyahu said, adding that according to Israeli intelligence “the amount of Iranian weapons smuggled through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon has significantly declined since the downing of the Russian plane.”

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Netanyahu described Israeli relations with Russia as “good” claiming that his “conversation with [Russian President] Putin lasted about half an hour and was excellent.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Netanyahu recently met at World War One commemorations in France.

Israel carried out more than 200 raids on targets in Syria last year, claiming it targets Iranian sites or trucks transporting weapons to Lebanese Hezbollah.