A top aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iran would withdraw its "military advisers" from Syria and Iraq only if their governments wanted it to.
Israel has repeatedly warned that it would not tolerate a permanent Iranian presence in Syria.
In recent months tensions have escalated between Iran and Israel after reports that Iran was building bases near its border and setting up a Shiite force that would let it gain a foothold in the Golan Heights. According to foreign media reports, Israel has bombed Iranian assets in Syria multiple times, including drone control positions and weapon shipments.
In May, after Iran fired a salvo of rockets on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, Israel mounted a massive retaliation against Iranian targets in Syria, in what was the first direct confrontation between the two foes.
"Iran and Russia's presence in Syria will continue to protect the country against terrorist groups and America's aggression," Iranian diplomat Ali Akbar Velayati said Friday. "We will immediately leave if Iraqi and Syrian governments want it, not because of Israel and America's pressure," he told reporters in Moscow.
Iran and Russia have backed Syrian President Bashar Assad in the seven-year civil war ranging in the country. Israel has repeatedly tried to exert leverage on Iran through Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly flying to Moscow to discuss the threat the Islamic republic poses to the region.
Netanyahu, who met with Putin in the Kremlin on Wednesday, reportedly told him that Israel does not intend to threaten Assad's rule in Syria and asked Moscow to work to remove Iranian forces from the country.
The prime minister said the cooperation between Israel and Russia was "a central component in preventing a conflagration and deterioration of these and other situations."
Velayati, who was in Moscow during Netanyahu's visit, was quoted in the Tehran Times as saying that "nobody cares" about Netanyahu's "baseless and illogical remarks."
"He [Netanyahu] is an itinerant person who travels to somewhere in the world every day," Velayati said. "Therefore, his presence or absence in Russia has no effect on our strategic mission," he added.
