A high-ranking US military official has warned that growing Russian-Iranian relations contribute to instability in the region and pose a threat to Israel.
“I can’t speak for the Israelis … but I can tell you that the growing connection between Russia and Iran, and if they are able to open up avenues where Iran is able to push lethal aid through Syria that threatens Israel, that’s certainly a concern for the United States,” said US Air Force Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewish in an online briefing on Wednesday.
He added that Israel is one of Washington’s closest partners in the region, and it has had a longstanding relationship with it over the years.
Grynkewish is the Commander of the Ninth Air Force and the Combined Forces Air Component Commander for US Central Command Southwest Asia.
In his briefing, Grynkewish said that the US has “a very longstanding relationship with Saudi Arabia.”
Asked about the recent reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran in terms of its impact on reducing tensions in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, he said: “Anything that defuses tensions in the Middle East I view as a positive trend line. “
“I think there’s a lot of good that comes when countries are talking to each other, when they have diplomatic relations … That sort of rapprochement or reconciliation, in my view, is always welcome.”
“In Syria, I’m not yet sure how this will play out. And the biggest reason for this actually goes back to the Russians. And so as all of us know, Iran has been selling unmanned aerial vehicles to the Russians … And Iran and Russia have a growing relationship,” he said.
Iran certainly wants the international coalition fighting ISIS to leave Syria and so it can have freedom of action to give Iran-backed groups move advanced conventional weapons and lethal capabilities across Syria for its own purposes, including threatening other states, Grynkewish added.
On Russian airplanes flying over international coalition bases in Syria, he said: “We have coalition forces on the ground at our garrisons that are focused on fighting ISIS. Yet the Russians will fly directly overhead or very near to these garrisons.”
“I think it’s a big distraction,” he added.
Source » aawsat