Israel, Syria opposition met on Iran, Hezbollah: Report

Rasa - Representatives of Israel and the Syrian opposition groups met several times in two years to discuss ways to counter Iran and the Lebanese resistance movement of Hezbollah, a report says.

News ID: 2735

Date: 13 June 2015 - 19:14

RNA - According to a Friday report by the Israeli website Walla, the two sides met several times in an unnamed Western country between 2012 and 2014.

During the talks, the Tel Aviv regime was represented by a senior official, whose identity was not revealed in the report.

The Walla report also added that the talks focused on the common enemies of the two sides, including Iran and Hezbollah.

“The important aspect of these meetings is the existence of dialogue, and the fact that the dialogue was given a stamp of approval in the form of a presence of a senior Israeli official,” the Israeli website quoted an informed source as saying.

Another Israeli official also told the website that the talks failed to bring about the desired results because Syrian opposition forces fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad “have no real power on the ground.”

These were the highest level talks held between Tel Aviv and the groups fighting Syria’s legitimate government since 2011, the report said.

Back in February, reports also revealed that Mendi Safadi, who served as former Likud Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara’s chief of staff, had met with members of militant groups from Syria in Bulgaria and later on relayed their messages to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Syria has been struggling with a deadly crisis since March 2011. The violence fueled by Takfiri groups has so far claimed the lives of over 222,000 people, according to reports.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says over 7.2 million people have also been internally displaced while more than three million others have fled Syria due to the crisis in the Arab country.

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