



"The US and Russia rejected an Israeli request to prevent the presence of any Iranian forces or Iranian-backed militias near the Israeli border as a part of the ceasefire agreement in south Syria, the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to the report, Israel demanded to create a 60-80km wide buffer zone inside Syria against Iranian-backed forces. The supposed buffer zone would spread from the Golan Heights to the west of the Damascus-al-Suwayda highway in southwestern Syria.

Israel proposed its idea to Russia and the US during the talks that preceded the cease-fire agreement in southern Syria. According to the report, Russia refused the Israeli proposal, while the US didn’t back it for real mostly.

However, Russia promised Israel that the Iranians and their allies will not move any closer to Israel than five kilometers in the areas held by the Syrian government. The report noted that no Iranian presence was notified on the frontline with Syria for months now." SF

https://southfront.org/russia-resfused-israel-demand-of-60km-buffer-zone-against-iranian-backed-forces-in-southern-syria/

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"The US Coalition forces are not planning to enter Deir Ezzor City, the spokesperson for Operation Inherent Resolve, U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, told reporters on Thursday.

“I’ll just tell you that the plan is not to go into Deir Ezzor City, but there (are) plenty of ISIS fighters and resources and leaders that continue to have holdouts throughout the middle Euphrates River valley,” Dillon concluded.

It was initially believed the US Coalition would attempt to out-maneuver the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) to the strategic city of Albukamal on the Iraqi border; however, this does not appear to be an option for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)."

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/us-backed-forces-not-entering-deir-ezzor-city-coalition-spokesperson/

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"You asked "Is there a SAG-SDF deal?" This morning's press briefing by Coalition Spokesman indicated that the SDF do have direct communications with the regime. It is through their own line of communication and NOT through the Russian/CJTF deconfliction hotline. Did not go into detail, did not indicate at what level either on the SDF side or on the regime side. So at least there are talks going on even if it is not a full fledged deal." Comment from Mike

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1. The US/Russian refusal of Israel's wish for a 50 km. buffer zone free of Iranian/Hizbullah presence east of the Golan Heights occupation line suggests that there is substantial US/Russian coordination on Syria policy.

2. Yesterday, the US coalition forces announced through its official spokesman, that SDF forces would not try to enter the city of Deir al-Zor. This did not seem to be the case earlier given the SDF's rapid advance to the cross Euphrates suburbs of the city. This suggests that the policy of coordination with Russia in Syria has percolated from the White House to the US field command or that the SDF has told their American minders that they are not willing try to "outmaneuver" the Syrian government east of the Euphrates.

3. Mike's comment above indicates that a separate non/US-Russian link now exists between the SDF and the Syrian government. This bodes well for a post civil war Syria and its territorial integrity. pl