Minister appears to criticize deal to distance Iran from border

Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi appears to criticize the reported trilateral US-Russia-Jordanian deal to keep Iran away from Israel’s border, in the first official Israeli response to the agreement.

The deal “does not meet Israel’s unequivocal demand the there will not be developments that bring the forces of Hezbollah or Iran to the Israel-Syria border in the north,” Hanegbi says, according to Reuters.

“There’s reflection here of the understanding that Israel has set red lines, and will stand firm on this,” he adds.

The United States, Russia and Jordan had reportedly reached an agreement on a ceasefire deal in southern Syria that would include the expulsion of Iranian-backed militias from the border with Israel in the Golan Heights. Under the agreement apparently inked Saturday, all non-Syrian fighters, including Iranian proxies fighting on behalf of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime, would be required to leave the border area and eventually Syria, Hebrew media reports said Sunday, citing an American official.

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