Israel is ready to reopen a crossing point into the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights for U.N. personnel after Syrian regime forces have regained control from the opposition, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said yesterday. But Lieberman, on a visit to the Israeli-held side of the Quneitra crossing, said any resumption of operations at the facility depended on Syria.
"The fact that we have come here, to Alpha Gate, and as far as we are concerned UNDOF forces have begun to operate and patrol with the Israeli military's assistance, says that we are ready for the crossing to reopen," he told reporters, in comments distributed by his ministry, as reported by Reuters.
Lieberman was referring to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, whose monitoring operations in a demilitarized zone established in 1974 between the Israeli-occupied Golan and the Syrian sector were disrupted by Syria's civil war. "At the moment, the ball is in the Syrian court," Lieberman said.
Military police from Russia, a major ally of Bashar al-Assad, have been patrolling on the Syrian side of Quneitra, where Lieberman said Syrian police and customs officials were also present. With Assad now in almost complete control of southwestern areas abutting the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights, Russia, in July, had offered to keep Iranian forces at least 100 km (60 miles) from the Golan Heights cease-fire line. The offer came up during a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, but Israel rejected it as insufficient, the official said.
Israel seized 1,200 square kilometers (460 square miles) of the Golan from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognized by the international community. Israel opposes Assad but has sought to avoid being dragged into the Syria's civil war. However, it has carried out strikes to stop arms deliveries to the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which fights alongside Assad's forces. Israel fought a war against Hezbollah in 2006.
While formally neutral in the seven-year-old civil war next door, Israel has carried out scores of air strikes against suspected emplacements or arms transfers by Iranian or Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in Syria, apparently unimpeded by the Russian defense systems deployed there.
Since the war broke out, Israel has supported Bashar Assad's removal and made warnings about the advancement of Iran and its proxies. Israel wants Assad to leave the post and Iran to stop supporting Shiite militants. Iran has helped the Assad regime throughout the war, dispatching thousands of soldiers, mobilizing the Hezbollah group and delivering millions of dollars, despite its troubled economy, suffering due to international sanctions.
