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By Dan Williams and Gleb Stolyarov
JERUSALEM / MOSCOW (Reuters) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Reuters on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would be safe from Israel, but Moscow should encourage Iranian forces quit Syria, a senior Israeli official said.
The message, which the official said Netanyahu conveyed in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, came just hours after Israel shot down what it was saying to a Syrian drone that had penetrated its airspace, underscoring the frontier's volatility.
Israel has been on high alert 1967 and annexed in a move not recognised internationally. Israel worries Assad could let his Iranian and Hezbollah reinforcements intercede between Israeli lines or that Syrian forces may defy a 1974 Golan demilitarization.
"They (Russia) have an active interest in seeing a stable Assad regime and we in getting the Iranians out These are the words of the Israeli official said.
"We will not take action against the Assad regime," the official quoted Netanyahu as saying Putin in Moscow, and added the Israeli leader came away rebadured "They (Russia) are getting the Iranians out".
Russia was working to distance Iranian forces from the Golan and they proposed that they be kept 80 km (50 miles) away but this fell short of Israel's demand for their full exit along with that of Tehran-sponsored militias, the official said.
A second Israeli official told Reuters that Netanyahu's message did not constitute any "quid pro quo" offer to Russia.
Since turning the tide of Syria's civil war by intervening militarily in 2015 on Assad's behalf, Russia has turned a blind eye to the scores of Israeli air strikes against Iranian and Hezbollah
Israel said a Syrian drone, apparently unarmed and designed for surveillance, entered its airspace and was down with a Patriot missile near the Sea of Galilee on Wednesday. The interception set off on the Golan and the Jordanian border.
"We are still looking into it, it's a question of crossing the border," said Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman. He added that the scenario was not common.
Israeli cabinet ministers threatened this week to fire on Syrian forces that enter the Golan buffer zone set up as part of a 1974 U.N.-monitored armistice. The United Nations last month re: the mandate of the Golan observers force
"There should be no military forces in the area of separation of those of UNDOF," A spokesman said.
Israel has signed up to eventualities with Assad, a tacit acknowledgment that he is re-consolidating power as he routs Syria's rebels.
Under Assad family rule, Syria held direct talks with Israel in the United States in 2000 and indirect talks mediated by Turkey in 2008. Netanyahu's government has made it clear that it would not be the place of the Golan and has been lobbying for US recognition of Israel's claim of sovereignty.
On June 24, Israel's military said it launched A Syrian Patriot Missile at an incoming drone from Syria, which turned away unscathed.A Syrian Commander said the drone was engaged in local operations.On July 6, Israel struck a Syrian the Golan Buffer Zone
(Additional report by Michelle Nichols in the United Nations; Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Peter Graff)
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