MOSCOW — Israeli action in Syria violates a 1974 treaty between Israel and Syria that ended the Yom Kippur war, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, calling Israeli air strikes on Syria a matter for serious concern.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that his country aims to impose a “sterile defense zone” in southern Syria as the Israeli military said a wave of its air strikes had destroyed the bulk of Syria’s strategic weapons stockpiles.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing Israel’s actions did not serve to stabilize the situation in Syria and called on it to show restraint.
The Kremlin on Wednesday played down the damage to Russian influence in the Middle East from the fall of Syrian ally Bashar Assad, saying that its focus was Ukraine and that Moscow was in contact with the new rulers of Syria.
When Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, it helped tip the balance in Assad’s favor, so his fall from power dealt a serious setback to both Russia, which is fighting a major land war in Ukraine, and to Iran, which is battling US-backed Israel across the Middle East.
“You know, of course, that we are in contact with those who are currently in control of the situation in Syria,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Asked how much the fall of Assad had weakened Russia’s influence in the region, Peskov said that Moscow maintained contacts with all countries in the region and would continue to do so.
Moscow’s priority, Peskov said, was the war in Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation.”
“The special military operation is the absolute priority for our country: we must ensure the interests of our security, the interests of our Russian people, and we shall do so,” Peskov said.
Moscow has supported Syria since the early days of the Cold War, recognizing its independence in 1944 as Damascus sought to throw off French colonial rule. The West saw Syria as a Soviet satellite.
AN-REUTERS
