Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz on Wednesday said he has no knowledge of close ally U.S. President Donald Trump ever ordering the killing of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
A new book by Watergate reporter Bob Woodward titled "Fear: Trump in the White House" alleges that Trump told his defense secretary that he wanted to have Assad assassinated in response to a chemical attack on Syrian civilians in April 2017.
According to the book, Defense Secretary James Mattis told Trump he would "get right on it" but instead developed a plan for a limited airstrike that did not threaten Assad personally.
Trump tweeted that quotes attributed to Mattis were "made up frauds, a con on the public." Mattis dismissed the book as "a uniquely Washington brand of literature."
Speaking to radio station 103 FM Wednesday, Katz remarked that "I do not know of any such instruction. [Trump] is also denying it, by the way."
"In any event, what can be said is that in the framework of the coordination between the United States and Israel ... the subject of the Syrian regime is certainly part of the discussions. Israel did not take a decision to topple Assad," Katz said in the interview.
While formally keeping out of the seven-year civil war in neighboring Syria, Israel has carried out scores of air strikes to foil suspected attempts by Assad's Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah allies to establish a military presence in the war-torn country.
Under decades of Assad family rule, Syria has maintained a Cold War-style posture toward Israel. Katz said Israel did not see a better alternative to Assad among Syrian rebel groups.
"Of course [Assad's] actions are terrible actions, and something that we abhor and condemn. Those opposing him, ISIS and others, are not a side that we think are better. We took care to preserve our interests," Katz said.
Woodward gained national fame for his reporting on the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, and has since written a number of books that provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of presidential administrations and other Washington institutions.
For this book, Woodward spoke to top aides and other insiders with the understanding that he would not reveal how he got his information, said The Washington Post, which published excerpts from the book on Tuesday.
