Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that it would be "absolutely unrealistic" to expect that Iran completely withdraw from Syria once the civil war there ends.
Iran has been propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime since the war erupted in March 2011. Russia stepped in to help him fight the rebels in September 2015.
Israel has repeatedly stated it will not tolerate Iranian military presence close to its shared border with Syria. The issue has and remains a major topic of discussion between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and it is expected to dominate their next meeting in Moscow, set for July 11.
Speaking after a meeting with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Moscow, Lavrov said a proposed cease-fire deal in the southern region brokered by Russia, Jordan and the U.S. envisioned the withdrawal of non-Syrian forces and the deployment of Syrian troops along the border with Israel.
However, Lavrov said Iran is "one of the key powers in the region" and therefore it would be "absolutely unrealistic" to expect it to relinquish its interests in the war-torn country.
Regional powers should discuss mutual complaints and negotiate a compromise, he said.
Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will discuss the situation in southern Syria at their upcoming summit in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat reported last week that Trump is set to make a full Iranian pullout from Syrian territory a priority at the summit, as the U.S. is convinced that Russia would be unwilling to "pay a heavy price" for Iran's continued presence in Syria.
