|
Comments from sources involved in ongoing Syria-Israel security negotiations indicate that a security agreement between the two countries is currently very unlikely, despite US pressure. Reuters reported on September 16 that the United States is pressuring the Syrian transitional government to accelerate negotiations with Israel for a limited security pact ahead of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 23. This limited security pact would reportedly not include Israel-Syria normalization. US pressure has not resolved fundamental challenges to the current negotiations, however. The Syrian transitional government seeks to reinstate the 1974 demilitarized buffer zone between the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights and Syria, curb Israeli incursions and airstrikes in Syria, and secure an Israeli withdrawal from recently seized territory in southern Syria, according to nine sources involved in the talks. Syrian sources said the proposal for a security pact will not address the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, which will be handled “in the future.”[3] US sources said that “even a modest agreement would be a feat” due to Israel’s hardened stance in negotiations. The US sources added that the Syrian transitional government is in a weakened position after intercommunal violence in Suwayda Province in July “inflamed calls for partition.” Unspecified sources said to Reuters that Israel would be reluctant to give up recently occupied Syrian territory, and an Israeli security source confirmed that “Israel is not offering much.” Israel’s negotiating position further narrows the prospect of a near-term security agreement due to the domestic political constraints that Shara faces. An Israeli source said Israel proposed to US Special Envoy Thomas Barrack that Israel would withdraw from southern Syria in exchange for Syria relinquishing its claim to the Golan Heights. Syrian sources said that President Ahmad al Shara has rejected this proposal since “any compromise on the Golan would mean the end of his rule.”
Unspecified gunmen attacked an Iranian security force vehicle on September 16 in Khash, Sistan and Baluchistan Province, killing two police officers and wounding another officer. The gunmen stopped the police vehicle on the Khash-Zahedan highway. The attackers’ identities and motives remain unknown, and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The attack follows a series of recent Jaish al Adl attacks in Sistan and Baluchistan Province, however. Jaish al Adl is a Baloch, Salafi-jihadi militant group that frequently attacks Iranian security forces in southeastern Iran.
The United States sanctioned two Iranian financial facilitators and over a dozen Hong Kong- and United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based individuals and entities on September 16 for funding the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and the Iranian Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Ministry (MODAFL). The US Treasury Department stated on September 16 that two Iranian facilitators laundered more than $100 million in oil revenue through cryptocurrency, front companies, and exchange houses to support Iran’s weapons programs and the Axis of Resistance.
|
