Putin says Israel ‘main beneficiary’ of Syrian rebels’ ousting of Assad
Russian president tells reporters he hopes IDF troops leave buffer zone, but ‘I have the impression that not only are they not going to leave, but they’re going to reinforce’
MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin denied on Thursday that Russia’s nine-year intervention in Syria had been a failure, but expressed concern about Israel’s military operations there since the toppling of his longtime ally Bashar al-Assad, calling Jerusalem the “main beneficiary” of his ouster.
Putin, addressing multiple questions on Syria at a marathon annual news conference, said Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia’s air and naval bases in the country. In his first public comments on the subject, he also said he had not yet met Assad since the former president fled to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so.
Putin played down the damage to Moscow from the fall of Assad, saying its military intervention in Syria since 2015 had helped prevent the Mideast country from becoming a “terrorist enclave.”
He said Israel was the “main beneficiary” of the current situation.
Soon after Assad’s fall, Israel moved troops into the buffer zone on the Syrian side of the dividing line of the countries’ borders and conducted hundreds of airstrikes to destroy Syrian army weapons and equipment. The IDF said it destroyed most of the Assad regime’s strategic military capabilities, in an effort to prevent advanced weaponry from falling into the hands of hostile elements.
“Russia condemns the seizure of any Syrian territories. This is obvious,” Putin said, saying Israel had penetrated to a depth of 25 kilometers (16 miles) and gotten as far as fortifications that were built for Syria by the former Soviet Union.
Putin said Russia hoped that Israel would at some point leave Syrian territory, “but now it is bringing in additional troops there. I think there are already several thousand there. And I have the impression that not only are they not going to leave, but they are going to reinforce there.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops during a visit to the buffer zone this week that they will have to remain in place there “until another arrangement can be found that guarantees Israel’s security.”
The IDF has said that its deployment to the buffer zone and strategic positions in the area is a defensive and temporary measure, and it would remain there until the situation in Syria clears up. The military has also acknowledged operating beyond the buffer zone in several areas.
Putin said Turkey was also intervening in pursuit of its own security interests with regard to Kurdish fighters in Syria whom Ankara regards as terrorists.
“We all understand this. There will be many problems. But we are on the side of international law and for the sovereignty of all countries, while respecting their territorial integrity, meaning Syria,” Putin said.
He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing.
Russia had proposed using its Hmeimim air base to deliver humanitarian aid, and had also evacuated 4,000 Iranian fighters from Syria via that route, he said.
In response to a question on the subject from a American journalist, Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of US reporter Austin Tice, who is missing in Syria, and was ready to ask Syria’s new rulers about Tice’s whereabouts too.
