INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Benjamin Netanyahu told Russia on Wednesday that Israel would not seek to topple its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but Moscow
should encourage Iranian forces to quit Syria, a senior Israeli official said.Netanyahu conveyed the message in talks with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, the official said, just hours after Israel shot down what it described as a Syrian drone that had penetrated its airspace,
underscoring the frontier's volatility.Israel has been on high alert as Assad's forces advance on rebels in the vicinity of the Golan
Heights, much of which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed in a move not recognised internationally
Israel worries Assad could let his Iranian and Hezbollah reinforcements entrench near Israeli lines or that Syrian forces may defy a 1974
Golan demilitarisation."They (Russia) have an active interest in seeing a stable Assad regime and we in getting the Iranians out
These can clash or it can align," said the Israeli official on condition of anonymity."We won't take action against the Assad regime," the
official quoted Netanyahu as telling Putin in Moscow.David Keyes, a Netanyahu spokesman, denied that the prime minister made that statement
to Putin.Asked to summarise Israeli policy on Syria, Keyes said: "We don't get involved in the civil war
We will act against anyone who acts against us."The Israeli official who requested anonymity said Russia was working to distance Iranian
forces from the Golan and had proposed that they be kept 80 km (50 miles) away but that this fell short of Israel's demand for their full
exit along with that of Tehran-sponsored militias.Russian officials had no immediate comment on the meeting.Since turning the tide of
Syria's civil war by intervening militarily in 2015 on Assad's behalf, Russia has turned a blind eye to scores of Israeli air strikes
against Iranian and Hezbollah deployments or arms transfers, while making clear it wanted Assad kept immune.Israel said a Syrian drone,
apparently unarmed and designed for surveillance, entered its airspace and was downed with a Patriot missile near the Sea of Galilee on
The interception set off sirens on the Golan and nearby Jordanian border."We are still looking into why it crossed - whether it was on a
military mission and crossed on purpose, or it strayed," said Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman
He said a stray drone was "not common".Israeli cabinet ministers threatened this week to fire on Syrian forces that enter the Golan buffer
zone set up as part of a 1974 U.N.-monitored armistice
The United Nations last month renewed the mandate of its Golan observer force UNDOF and on Wednesday called on all parties to abide by the
armistice."There should be no military forces in the area of separation other than those of UNDOF," a U.N
spokesman said.Israel has signalled openness to eventual ties with Assad, a tacit acknowledgement that he is re-consolidating power as he
routs Syria's rebels.Under Assad family rule, Syria held direct negotiations with Israel in the United States in 2000 and indirect talks
mediated by Turkey in 2008
Netanyahu's government has made clear it would not now cede the Golan and has been lobbying for U.S
recognition of Israel's claim of sovereignty there.On June 24, Israel's military said it launched a Patriot missile at an incoming drone
from Syria, which turned away unscathed
A Syrian commander said the drone was engaged in local operations
for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
