Netanyahu cautioned both Iran and Syria after talks in Jerusalem on Tuesday with Russia’s envoy to Syria

Israel held out the prospect on Tuesday of eventual contacts with Syria under President Bashar al-Assad, in a nod to his regime-consolidating advances in a seven-year-old civil war that Israeli officials had initially predicted would topple him.

Netanyahu cautioned both Iran and Syria after talks in Jerusalem on Tuesday with Russia’s envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentiev, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin.

“At the meeting (with Putin), the prime minister will make clear that Israel will not tolerate military entrenchment by Iran or its proxies anywhere in Syria, and that Syria must abide meticulously by the 1974 separation agreement,” an official Israeli statement said.