The United States should not sell its high-tech F-35 fighter jet to Turkey if Ankara moves ahead with plans to buy a Russian missile defense system, the top US military commander for Europe told Congress on Tuesday.
A spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State group says thousands of people, including militants, have left the last area held by the extremists in Syria.
Russia and Israel share the goal of removing all foreign troops from Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday at the weekly cabinet meeting.
The top U.S. and Russian generals are set to meet to discuss the situation in Syria, where the two countries, along with Iran and Turkey, have been militarily involved in the Middle East country’s eight-year civil war.
President Trump acknowledged Saturday a small contingent of U.S. troops will remain in Syria despite announcing last year his controversial decision to withdraw all American forces from the country.
Following their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ‘showed an understanding of Israel’s security needs’ regarding Iran’s presence in Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Israel will continue to take action against Iran in Syria, in the first significant meeting between the two since a major spat developed over a downed spy plane last year.
Syrian President Bashar al Assad made his first public visit to his closest regional ally Iran since the start of Syria’s war in 2011, meeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran on Monday and championing their alliance, state media reported.
A senior Iranian defense official boasted Saturday that Iran has achieved the vast majority of its objectives in Syria since the start of that country’s civil war, and dismissed the efficacy of Israeli efforts to counter the Islamic Republic’s military presence there.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin next Wednesday, his office said Thursday.
President Trump on Thursday spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about strategy in Syria ahead of a meeting between the top military leaders from each country.
Washington said on Thursday that it planned to leave some US forces behind in Syria, even after the bulk of American troops left the country.
Islamic State appeared closer to defeat in its last enclave in eastern Syria on Wednesday, as a civilian convoy left the besieged area where U.S.-backed forces estimate a few hundred jihadists are still holed up.
Iran’s foreign minister accused Israel of ‘adventurism,’ with its campaign of airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria and said he could not rule out the possibility that they could lead to a war between the Mideast arch foes.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country is determined to buy and field a Russian-made missile-defense system, despite efforts by the White House to head off the deal.
U.S.-backed fighters in Syria are poised to capture Islamic State’s last, tiny enclave on the Euphrates, the battle commander said on Saturday, bringing its self-declared caliphate to the brink of total defeat as U.S. President Donald Trump spoke of ‘100 percent victory’.
It was almost a who’s who of America’s foes as Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, was surrounded on Thursday by some of the world’s most notorious human rights violators. He was announcing the formation of a group of countries that he said would defend the United Nations Charter.
Moscow, Ankara and Tehran see the planned US withdrawal from Syria as a positive step, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a summit with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts on Thursday.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Tuesday evening that Israel struck Hezbollah targets in Syria the previous day. The confirmation runs contrary to the position of the Israeli defense establishment, as senior defense officials refrained from addressing the incident on the Syrian Golan Heights.
Israel’s campaign of airstrikes in Syria has driven Iran to change tack in the country, moving the bulk of its troops and bases away from the Israeli border and toward what it sees as a safer location closer to Iraq, according to Military Intelligence assessments released Wednesday.