Israeli leader: Trump withdrawal from Syria won’t affect us

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chats to a member of the Israeli military before delivering a statement at the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem December 19, 2018. (REUTERS)

• Israel has seen the US presence in neighboring Syria as a bulwark against its main enemy Iran and a counterweight to Russia
• “We will continue to act against Iran’s attempt to establish a military presence in Syria,” Netanyahu said

JERUSALEM: Israel’s leader says the American decision to withdraw its forces from Syria will not affect Israeli policy.
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will “continue to act against Iran’s attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria, and to the extent necessary, we will even expand our actions there.”
Israel, like others, was caught off-guard by President Donald Trump’s abrupt move to withdraw all the roughly 2,000 US forces from Syria in the coming weeks. The announcement sparked the resignation of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the global coalition fighting the Daesh group. Several Republicans said leaving Syria was an abandonment of American allies, such as Israel.
Netanyahu, who flaunts a good rapport with Trump, says Sunday “cooperation with the US will continue in full.”