Source: Israel Will Have Its Say in Syria Peace Plan

A senior Israeli official said on Sunday that Israel will insist that any future peace agreement in Syria will include a provision to keep Iranian and Hezbollah forces at a distance from the Israeli border on the Golan. Anything in lieu of such a provision will not be acceptable to Israel.

The source also said that the prospects of the current ceasefire leading to a peace settlement are weak, particularly in view of the U.S. backdown on the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad and failure to secure a commitment from Turkey to end its military operations in Syria.

Assad has welcomed the interim agreement because it leaves him in power and gives him time to organize for the next stages of the war, the source said.

In addition, he noted that until now only the main points of the agreement between the Russians and Americans have been publicized, and as long as the details are not known, it is hard to take the ceasefire seriously, after several other such attempts in the past which led to no progress.