Israel will escalate its fight against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of American troops from the war-torn country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Some Israeli officials have said US President Donald Trump's move, announced on Wednesday, could help Iran by removing a US garrison that stems the movement of Iranian forces and weaponry into Syria from Iraq.
Israel also worries that its main ally's exit could reduce its diplomatic leverage with Russia, the Syrian regime's big-power backer.
"We will continue to act very aggressively against Iran's efforts to entrench in Syria," Netanyahu said at a joint summit with the leaders of Greece and Cyprus.
"We do not intend to reduce our efforts. We will intensify them, and I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the United States," he said in televised remarks.
Israel has clandestinely carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria over the course of the seven-year civil war to prevent Iranian entrenchment near the border and to keep strategic weaponry from reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Trump cited what he described as victory over ISIS militants in Syria as warranting the US withdrawal. Israel has long tried to persuade Washington that Iran and its Shiite fighters, sent to reinforce Damascus, pose the greater threat.
"ISIS has indeed been defeated in Syria, and this is greatly thanks to America," Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet, said in a statement to Reuters.
"But Iran are already moving in, and they are a threat to the whole free world."
Another security cabinet member, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, told Israel's Army Radio: "Of course the American decision is not good for us. But we know that safeguarding Israel's security is also an American interest in the region."
