It is likely that during his visit to Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed one of the working scenarios for joint further action in the Middle East to promote some agreements, which, incidentally, may also be related to the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria in coordination with Moscow and Israel. Only in this or a similar scenario is his visit worth a candle during the raging coronavirus pandemic.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo literally made a blitz visit to Israel. It was his second trip to the region in almost two months during the riot of the Coronavirus Pandemic. The first one took place in late March, when Pompeo paid an unannounced visit to Kabul to move the Afghan settlement from the deadlock after the U.S. and the Taliban (an organization banned in Russia) signed an agreement to end the military confrontation. At the time, this visit of Pompeo was called “special”. It took place against the backdrop of alarming reports regarding the coronavirus, which did not prevent the Secretary of State from holding meetings with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai and his main opponent Abdullah Abdullah. That is why many experts attribute Pompeo’s visit to Israel to some “extraordinary events”, about which the parties prefer to remain silent. And after all, the Secretary of State held separate meetings in Jerusalem with the Prime Minister and the leader of the Likud party Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of the party “Cahol Lavan” Beni Ganz, former head of the General Staff of the Israeli army Gabi Ashkenazi, who on May 14 will become Minister of Foreign Affairs in the new government of Israel, and the head of the “Mossad” Yosi Cohen.
As is often the case in such cases, arguments on the surface are thrown up the mountain. Earlier, the Jerusalem Post claimed that one of the main topics of Pompeo’s negotiations in Israel will be steps to implement the peace plan of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to which Israel plans to annex territories in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. But that position was disavowed by the State Department representative. “I think we should dispel the notion that we flew halfway around the world to talk about the annexation. These reports were incorrect,” said an American diplomat. – It wasn’t the main topic”. Then what was it? Pompeo himself, while opening talks in Jerusalem, outlined the purpose of the visit as follows: coordination of “the fight against two key threats, namely, the Coronavirus and Iran”. He thanked Israel for sharing with the U.S. all available information about the Coronavirus, “unlike some other countries that are trying to confuse and hide this information. A clear hint of China, though Pompeo didn’t name the country directly.
But was this the only reason the head of American diplomacy flew to Israel? It was clear that certain specific action plans, both at the bilateral level and in the Middle East, were being discussed. Pompeo himself said in a newspaper interview before his flight that he would “give Netanyahu and Ganz some advice that they would find difficult to give up.
It is a fact that the days of quarantine are still days of “coronation” in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which should also lead to certain reflections. By and large, no one now wants to return to old habits by fomenting and provoking conflicts whose victims can no longer be attributed to an illness brought from outside. In this regard, various political-diplomatic combinations are voiced. Indirect signs have appeared – willingness to exchange prisoners of war or to reach a common agreement on the candidacy of the new Prime Minister of Iraq – that Washington and Tehran may enter into bilateral negotiations.
There are, however, not entirely confirmed reports that Iran is reducing its presence in Syria.
This can objectively change Netanyahu’s position on the formation of the Iranian front in Syria, if, of course, Tehran really begins to withdraw the Quds force units from their headquarters at Damascus International Airport, or withdraw the support centers used to strengthen Hezbollah and other Shiite organizations in Syria and Lebanon. It is clear that Russia will inevitably be involved in such processes, which, according to the Israeli publication Haaretz, “gets an opportunity to strengthen its position in the Middle East not at the expense of Israel, but rather with its participation. At the same time, Moscow is able to act as a mediator between Israel and Iran. Otherwise, according to the French edition of JForum, “the interests of Israel in a future agreement to strengthen the stability of Syria are not visible. Besides, it seems that the Syrian settlement will drift towards negotiations in Geneva under the auspices of the UN, rather than the Astana process, in which only Russia, Iran and Turkey are involved.
In order to get Washington to agree to President Bashar al-Assad’s participation in future elections in Syria, Moscow may initiate a dialogue between Israel and Syria to somehow circumvent the Iranian issue. It should be noted that the proposed scheme of action is farfetched, but the very course of events in the region during the Coronavirus Pandemic suggests that there is a possibility of some changes in the Middle East policy of the U.S., Israel, Russia and Iran. Therefore, there is a high probability that Pompeo in Israel discussed one of the working scenarios of joint further actions in the Middle East to promote some agreements, which, incidentally, may also be related to the withdrawal of American troops from Syria in coordination with Moscow and Israel. Only in this or a similar scenario is the trip of the head of American diplomacy worth a candle in the current situation, because Israel is potentially becoming a platform for dialogue to strengthen the stability of Syria. The matter now is how and when the new Israeli coalition government will come up with its action plan. Israeli experts say that “now there is both certainty and a sense of urgency”, which appeared in connection with the visit of Pompeo. We will wait.
Stanislav Tarasov, REGNUM news agency