Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently halted a regional multi-stage plan that was supported by former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu involving the legitimization of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the return of Syria to the Arab League in exchange for the expulsion of Iranian militias from Syrian territory.

According to a Yisrael Hayom report on Sunday, the plan for “whitewashing” Assad was first raised by Israel at a summit held in Jerusalem three years ago between the national security advisers of Israel, the US, and Russia.

In a conversation with then-Trump adviser John Bolton and Putin’s national security adviser Nikolai Patrushev, then-National Security Council head Meir Ben-Shabbat presented the multi-stage plan: Assad will call on all foreign forces that entered Syria after 2011 to leave his country; Syria will be accepted as a member of the Arab League; the Persian Gulf states, led by the United Arab Emirates, will invest in the Syrian economy instead of Iran; and lastly, reforms will be implemented in the Syrian regime that will be established in talks in Vienna.

Ben-Shabbat also presented the plan to all Arab countries with which Israel maintains ties, including the Gulf states. Jordan was especially interested in the plan, with the goal of ridding itself of the burden of millions of Syrian refugees, and Egypt was also interested in the plan. However, the country most interested in the plan and the one who took active steps to advance it was the UAE, which has been suffering from attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan sent his foreign minister to Damascus last year, and last month welcomed Assad to the Emirates. It was the Syrian president’s first visit to an Arab country since the Syrian civil war began in in 2011 and his subsequent expulsion from the Arab League.

A senior source told Yisrael Hayom that the various countries agreed that Assad’s rule is a fait accompli and despite the fact that he’s a ruthless dictator,  legitimizing him in order to weaken Iran is the best option possible. However, due to the multiple elections in Israel along with the eventual change of government both in Israel and the US, the plan was never advanced. The Biden administration is adamantly opposed to any move to legitimize Assad.

The source added that Israel was aware that Assad has no forces of his own that are capable of forcing Iranian militias to leave Syrian territory. Despite this obstacle, “the consideration was to launch an international move, in the hope that it would eventually yield results. There is no other option to expel the Iranians from Syria. Only a combination of military strikes and a political process could cause them to withdraw. The goal of the plan was to delegitimize the Iranian presence in Syria, and for that, first and foremost, we needed support and agreement between the US and Russia, and these were indeed achieved.”

When the current head of the National Security Council, Eyal Hulta, entered office, he was updated on the plan by Ben-Shabbat, but Bennett decided not to continue advancing the plan.

A discussion on the plan arose at the Negev Summit two weeks ago, with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan providing an update about his meeting with Assad.

Bennett presented a neutral position regarding Assad. He did not oppose the possibility of legitimizing him but didn’t actively support the idea since he believes that the plan cannot be currently advanced.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the advancement of the plan is even less feasible as it would require coordination between Russia and the US.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)