Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in his Jerusalem office on Monday with Tom Barrack, U.S. ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, others included in the talks were Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar; Gil Reich, acting head of the National Security Council; military secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman; Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel; and Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States.
Barrack’s visit comes in the backdrop of a terror attack in Syria on Saturday, in which a “lone ISIS gunman” ambushed, shot and killed two U.S. service members and a civilian, according to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
The two soldiers were confirmed on Monday to be part of the Iowa National Guard, deployed as part of an antiterrorism mission.
The special envoy condemned what he called a “cowardly terrorist ambush targeting a joint U.S.-Syrian government patrol in central Syria.”
Israel Hayom reported on Nov. 27 that the Trump administration has set the end of the year as the deadline for the Lebanese government to disarm Hezbollah, according to diplomatic sources with knowledge of the matter.
In July, Barrack said the Iranian terror proxy Hezbollah “needs to see that there’s a future for them.”
Speaking to reporters in Beirut, he was quoted by AFP as saying: “Hezbollah is a political party. It also has a militant aspect to it. Hezbollah needs to see that there’s a future for them, that the road is not harnessed solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also.”
Barrack’s comments were made in the context of a roadmap for Hezbollah’s disarmament, which he delivered to the Lebanese government on behalf of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
A State Department official told JNS at the time that “our position has not changed—[Hezbollah] is a designated terrorist organization, and we do not distinguish between its political or armed wings.”
“As Ambassador Barrack said while in Beirut, Lebanon must utilize this moment to make progress, and that includes progress on disarming” the terrorist group steeped within the country, the official said.
