Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov asserted once again that non-Syrian forces had to leave southern Syria with the utmost haste. This was the second time in three days in which Lavrov has voiced this demand, underscoring Moscow’s position, in which there was no place for an Iranian presence in southern Syria, particularly in the area that borders with Israel. Lavrov further announced, during a press conference in Moscow, that agreements had been reached about southwestern Syria that were signed by Russia, the United States and Jordan. Lavrov noted that Israel had been aware of those agreements while they were being drafted – adding that they were designed to bring about stability.
Meanwhile, an American ultimatum has delayed the Syrian regime’s efforts to reassert its sovereignty over the Syrian side of the Golan border with Jordan and Israel. The US administration explicitly warned the Assad regime not to carry out any military activity until it undertook to accept the trilateral agreement reached between Washington, Moscow and Amman, ‘to turn the area of Dara’a along the Jordanian border into a “combat-free zone.”’ Among others, the agreement that was signed in 2017, is supposed to protect Jordan from a wave of Syrian refugees that could threaten the stability of the Hashemite Kingdom.