View of a camp of Syrian refugees near the Syrian-Israeli border, as seen from the Israeli side of the border on July 2, 2018. Photo: Flash90.

JNS.org – Israel will not relent on its effort to push Iran ‎away from its borders, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin ‎Netanyahu has “made the struggle against the Iranian ‎military’s entrenchments in Syria a top priority,” a ‎senior Jerusalem source said on Tuesday.‎

The remarks followed reports that Iran and Syria ‎have signed a deal for military ‎cooperation as part ‎of which the Islamic republic ‎has pledged to rebuild ‎the Syrian army, which has ‎been severely depleted by ‎the seven-year civil war.‎

The official said the Israel Defense Forces ‎‎“will continue to act with full determination ‎against attempts by Iran to transfer military forces ‎and weapons systems to Syria.‎”

‎He added, “Diplomatically, we will continue with our effort to ‎‎[have the international community] exert pressure on ‎the Iranian regime, as we have seen it take its ‎toll.” ‎

Iran’s Parliament subjected President Hassan Rouhani ‎to a public grilling on Tuesday over the country’s ‎economic crisis, and rejected his answers as‎‎ “excuses.” ‎

Rouhani, who was summoned to answer to Parliament ‎amid growing public criticism of the regime, ‎admitted that US sanctions on Iran were having ‎a serious impact on the economy, saying, “Many ‎people have lost their faith in the future of the ‎Islamic republic and are in doubt about its power.”‎

Commenting on the Iran-Syria deal, Public Security ‎Minister Gilad Erdan said that “the pact between Syria ‎and Iran for rehabilitating ‎the Assad army is an ‎excuse and a facade meant to ‎grant legitimacy to the ‎Iranian forces remaining in ‎the area. But as far as we are concerned, no ‎machinations ‎keeping the Iranians in the area will ‎be ‎acceptable.”‎