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Netanyahu Heads to Moscow to ‘Free Syria from Iranians’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reuters
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Netanyahu Heads to Moscow to ‘Free Syria from Iranians’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Reuters

Following the failure of talks held by an Israeli delegation in Washington last week, the Israeli Prime Minister’s office announced Sunday that Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Sochi on Wednesday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discuss Israel’s demands regarding the latest arrangements in Syria.

Netanyahu believes that Russians are interested in finding a formula for cooperation with Israel in Syria and other countries and have more influence on Iran than the United States, "which threatens Tehran but does not leave the impression that it is involved in radical treatment to reduce its influence in the region,” said a political source in Tel Aviv.

A delegation of high-ranking Israeli defense officials returned from Washington empty-handed last week after it failed to secure a commitment from the Americans to ensure any agreement to end the war in Syria that would include the evacuation of Iranian military forces from the country.

Among the delegation's members were Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, Military Intelligence Directorate (MID) Chief Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi, head of the Political-Military Affairs Bureau in the Defense Ministry Zohar Palti (former chief of intelligence for the Mossad), Israel's Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer and Deputy National Security Advisor Eitan Ben-David.

During its visit to the US capital, the Israeli delegation met with the heads of the US intelligence community, National Security Council officials and President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt.

Israeli intelligence officials said the delegation "presented sensitive, credible and highly disturbing intelligence information," backed by documents and photographs, which showed the ever-growing spread of Iranian influence in Syria.

The US and Russia are currently working to formulate an agreement to bring an end to the fighting in Syria. Thanks to Russian and US understandings on military coordination between them, there has been a decline in the fighting in Syria since May.

The Israeli defense officials' talks with their US counterparts were described as detailed and professional while the atmosphere was described as friendly; Greenblatt tweeted a photo of the participants, without ties or jackets, eating dinner at the home of US National Security Advisor Herbert Raymond McMaster.

However, Israel is still concerned by the prospective agreement since the Americans did not commit to demanding the evacuation of Iranian and Hezbollah forces—allies of Bashar Assad—from the country.

Israel fears Iran and Hezbollah would exploit the situation to turn Syria into a protected state.

During their meetings, the members of the Israeli delegation stressed to their US counterparts, “We rushed here to warn of the deployment of Hezbollah, Iranian and Syrian forces; to explain exactly what's going on there … If you don't become more involved, tougher and more aggressive, you will leave the Middle East to the Iranians, under Russian auspices.”

Israeli officials are concerned that because of the domestic issues beleaguering President Donald Trump and the crisis with North Korea, the United States might decide not to flex its muscles too much in Syria, fold, and leave it at the mercy of Russia, the Assad regime, Iran and Hezbollah.

Israel plans to send a similar delegation to the Kremlin in an effort to convince Russian President Putin to stop the spread of Iranian influence in Syria as part of the upcoming agreement.

At present, the Iranian military forces deployed across Syria include some 500 Iranian soldiers, some 5,000 Hezbollah militants and several thousands fighters from Shi’ite militias from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

These forces operate as part of a special corps of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), which was established to fight in Syria. This corps is under the command of the elite Quds Force, which is responsible for the IRGC's foreign operations.

Commander of the Quds Force Qasem Soleimani, who spends a lot of his time in Syria, is working on a special project: Building a separate terminal reserved for Iran and Hezbollah at the Tartus Port.

According to Israeli assessments, Iran and its Shi’ite allies' strength and influence in Syria would increase exponentially if the US and Russia fail to do anything to end Iranian presence in the country.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, has already started creating infrastructure for intelligence collection in the Golan.

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Arab World

Lebanon Says Two Paramedics Affiliated with Hezbollah Killed by Israeli Strikes in South

A photograph taken from the southern area of Marjeyoun shows trails of smoke during Israeli shelling on the outskirts of the village of Yohmor on May 10, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern area of Marjeyoun shows trails of smoke during Israeli shelling on the outskirts of the village of Yohmor on May 10, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Says Two Paramedics Affiliated with Hezbollah Killed by Israeli Strikes in South

A photograph taken from the southern area of Marjeyoun shows trails of smoke during Israeli shelling on the outskirts of the village of Yohmor on May 10, 2026. (AFP)
A photograph taken from the southern area of Marjeyoun shows trails of smoke during Israeli shelling on the outskirts of the village of Yohmor on May 10, 2026. (AFP)

Lebanon's health ministry said two paramedics from the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee were killed and five others wounded on Sunday in two Israeli strikes on the country's south despite a ceasefire.

As the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling on a variety of other south Lebanon areas, Israel's army warned residents of three villages to evacuate, saying it would act forcefully against the Iran-backed group there.

Israel has kept up strikes despite a ceasefire in place since April 17 that was supposed to halt hostilities with Hezbollah, while the armed group has pressed on with its own attacks, mainly on Israeli troops operating in southern Lebanon but also across the border.

A Lebanese health ministry statement said that Israel "directly targeted, with two strikes, two Health Committee sites", killing one paramedic and wounding three others in Qalaway, and killing another paramedic and wounding two others in Tibnin.

The statement decried what it called Israel's continued "violation of international laws".

The Israeli military said in a statement that on Sunday its forces had struck "more than 20 terror infrastructure" targets in southern Lebanon, including Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and headquarters.

Israel has expanded its strikes in recent days, and the health ministry on Sunday raised the overall death toll from Israeli strikes since war erupted to 2,846 killed, including 108 health and emergency workers.

Israeli raids have killed dozens of people in Lebanon since the ceasefire.

Under the terms of the truce released by Washington, Israel reserves the right to act against "planned, imminent or ongoing attacks".

Its troops are operating behind an Israeli-declared "yellow line" which runs around 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Lebanon's border.

Residents have been warned not to return to the area.

On Saturday, the NNA reported heavy Israeli strikes in various parts of Lebanon including one that killed seven people, and several raids around 20 kilometers south of Beirut outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds.

Lebanon and Israel are preparing to hold a third round of talks on May 14-15 in Washington, with veteran Lebanese diplomat Simon Karam recently appointed by President Joseph Aoun to lead his country's delegation.

A first landmark meeting between the countries, which have no diplomatic relations, was held days before US President Donald Trump announced the ceasefire, while the second round came as he announced a three-week truce extension.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 when it launched rockets at Israel to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader in US-Israeli strikes.

Arab World

Syria Court Charges Former Security Official with Acts Amounting to ‘War Crimes’

Former head of political security in south Syria's Daraa province, Atef Najib attends the first trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus last month. (AFP)
Former head of political security in south Syria's Daraa province, Atef Najib attends the first trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus last month. (AFP)
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Syria Court Charges Former Security Official with Acts Amounting to ‘War Crimes’

Former head of political security in south Syria's Daraa province, Atef Najib attends the first trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus last month. (AFP)
Former head of political security in south Syria's Daraa province, Atef Najib attends the first trial session at the Palace of Justice, in Damascus last month. (AFP)

Syria's judiciary brought charges on Sunday against former security official Atef Najib for acts "amounting to war crimes" in 2011 against peaceful protesters in Daraa province, the cradle of the country's uprising.

Najib was the former head of political security in the south Syrian province and is accused of orchestrating a crackdown there. Washington sanctioned him for human rights abuses in April 2011, one month after the uprising erupted.

He appeared in a Damascus criminal court again on Sunday after the opening session last month in the trials of former senior figures, most prominently longtime president Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad, who are both being tried in absentia.

Judge Fakhr al-Din al-Aryan read out the charges at Sunday's session, part of which was broadcast on state television, as Najib stood in the docks.

"The accusations against you relate to events in Daraa province in early 2011, when the peaceful (protest) movement was met with an excessive use of force," Aryan said.

"As head of the political security branch then, you held direct and joint leadership responsibility for systematic acts that targeted civilians including killing, torture and arbitrary detention," he added.

He said abuses attributed to Najib, some of them deadly, include the arrest and torture of children due to "political writings on walls", involvement in "suppressing protests with excessive force" and "opening direct fire" on a peaceful sit-in at Daraa's Al-Omari mosque.

They also include "torture leading to death" in his branch's detention centers.

"You were the ultimate authority in Daraa province and hold direct responsibility for issuing orders to kill, arrest and torture... and for participating with political, security and military leaders in an organized hierarchical structure in committing these grave violations," the judge said.

The actions attributed to Najib and others not present "amount to war crimes... and crimes against humanity", he added.

The court heard statements from Najib and witnesses, state media said, after the judge halted media coverage.

Syria's more than 13-year civil war killed more than half a million people and displaced millions of others. Tens of thousands of people disappeared, some into the country's brutal prison system.

The uprising began in Daraa on March 15, 2011, after 15 students were arrested for allegedly writing anti-government slogans on the city's walls.

Residents said the children were tortured, leading to a protest to demand their release that ended in bloodshed.

Security personnel suppressed peaceful demonstrations with force and fired live ammunition to disperse sit-ins at several locations.

Najib was dismissed after the crackdown, as the protests spread to other provinces.

He was among the first Assad-era officials arrested by the new authorities after the December 2024 ousting of the longtime ruler.

Arab World

Lebanese Army Arrests Iraqi Man for Impersonating a Security Official

A picture taken from the seaside promenade of the northern Lebanese coastal town of Dbayeh shows the skyline of the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 17, 2020. (AFP)
A picture taken from the seaside promenade of the northern Lebanese coastal town of Dbayeh shows the skyline of the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 17, 2020. (AFP)
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Lebanese Army Arrests Iraqi Man for Impersonating a Security Official

A picture taken from the seaside promenade of the northern Lebanese coastal town of Dbayeh shows the skyline of the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 17, 2020. (AFP)
A picture taken from the seaside promenade of the northern Lebanese coastal town of Dbayeh shows the skyline of the Lebanese capital Beirut on March 17, 2020. (AFP)

The Lebanese army said on Sunday that it had arrested an Iraqi national for impersonating an Iraqi security official in Lebanon, the second alleged high-level imposter caught in recent months.

A military source told AFP that the man had managed to network with Lebanese security and intelligence officials, telling them he worked at Iraq's Beirut embassy.

The scandals have highlighted the fragility of Lebanon's institutions, which are built on a sect-based power-sharing system in a country rife with foreign interference, and where personal connections often play a key role in gaining influence, money and privilege.

An army statement said the Iraqi man was arrested "for impersonating an Iraqi security official on Lebanese territory, as a result of a surveillance and security follow-up operation".

Preliminary investigations indicate that the man was using "forged documents", the statement said, adding that the military uniform he had been using was seized.

The military source told AFP on condition of anonymity that the man "is married to a Lebanese woman and managed to get close to an intelligence official in Beirut, presenting himself as an Iraqi officer in the counter-terrorism branch, and a security attaché at the Iraqi embassy".

The Lebanese intelligence official allegedly helped the man "make contact with security and military officials and meet them", the source said.

The suspect actually works at a popular cafe on the airport road in Beirut's southern suburbs, the source added, after he started out there doing valet parking.

It is the second recent high-level impersonation case to rock Lebanon.

For months, authorities have been investigating an imposter who posed as a prince, extorting several politicians with the help of a religious figure.

The military source said that in the latest case, preliminary investigations into the man and those who met him have not yet uncovered a motive, adding that during the meetings "he promised to provide financial assistance from Iraq".

The case's seriousness owes to the man's ability to "convince intelligence officers of his fake identity", the source added.