Iranian Forces In Syria Withdraw More Than 50 Miles From Israeli Border

Head of the chamber of commerce in Damascus Mohamad Ghassan Al Qalaa (left) and the Kremlin’s special envoy on the Syria peace process Alexander Lavrentyev Image by Getty Images
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Iranian forces and their weapons have withdrawn to no closer than 53 miles from Israel’s border with Syria on the Golan Heights, a Russian official said.
Russian Presidential Special Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev told Sputnik news agency that Russia working for Syrian reconciliation in an open manner and in coordination with the Syrian government, respecting the interests of the neighboring countries, including Israel.
“Of course, we take into account the interests of neighboring states, interests of Israel, our president spoke about that. As we took into account the Israeli concerns, we managed to attain the pullout of Iranian units 85 kilometers [53 miles] from the Israeli [-Syrian] border,” Lavrentyev said.
Last week during a meeting in Jerusalem with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a Russian offer to keep Iranian troops a large distance from the border with Israel and instead insisted that Iran leave the country completely, a senior Israeli official told reporters.
Israel is concerned that Iran will stockpile “hundreds and thousands of missiles” in Syria.
“Iran wants to turn Syria into a second Lebanon. And we’re determined to prevent that,” the official said in a briefing to reporters last week.
Lavrentyev told Sputnik that Russia believes that Israeli concerns over the presence of pro-Iranian forces near its border with Syria are decreasing. “Yes, of course, we are certain of this,” Lavrentyev said.
Earlier this week, the Syrian government regained control of the Golan Heights area near the border with Israel from Islamic State-backed fighters for the first time in seven years.
Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Make a Passover Gift Today!
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Sports Israeli mom ‘made it easy’ for new NHL player to make history
-
Communications The Forward Announces Gifts of Domains Yiddish.com and Yiddish.org by Elie Hirschfeld and his wife Sarah Hirschfeld, MD
-
Culture How this Marc Chagall painting explains Pope Francis’ soul
-
Opinion He’s one of Israel’s worst extremists. So why is Yale legitimizing him?
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.