The Trump administration will issue new sanctions against Syria as early as Monday as part of its ongoing crackdown on the Syrian government and those who support it.

Three US officials said that the sanctions are part of a broader effort to cut off funding and other support to Syria's President Bashar Assad and his government amid the country's escalating civil war.

The US blames Assad for a recent chemical attack on Syrian civilians, and responded earlier this month by launching missiles against a Syrian airfield.

One official said the sanctions will primarily target weapons manufacturers believed to aid Assad's use of chemical weapons.

The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the decision publicly.

Trump has called Assad "evil" and said his use of chemical weapons "crossed a lot of lines."

The US has gradually been expanding its sanctions program against Syria since 2004, when it issued sanctions targeting Syria for a range of offenses, including its support of terrorism, as well as its occupation of Lebanon, efforts to undermine stability in Iraq and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

More recently, sanctions were expanded in connection with its civil war, now in its sixth year, to target offenses linked to the ongoing violence and human rights abuses.

Current Syria sanctions seek to block the property and interests in property of the Syrian government from receiving funding and support.

The US has also issued sanctions for foreign individuals or companies that support Assad's government. A number of Iranian entities have been penalized for supporting the Syrian government or fighters working to undermine peace in Syria.

While Moscow and Washington are continuously at odds over Syria, the US has not imposed any Syria-related sanctions on Russia.

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Nearly 100 days into his presidency, Trump consumes TV almost as voraciously as he did prior to occupying the Oval Office, according to a Washington Post report published on Sunday. 

According to the article, Trump turns on the TV as soon as he wakes up, watches periodically throughout the day, and continues into the late evening when he retires to the White House's private residence. 

"Once he goes upstairs, there's no managing him," one White House aide told the Post. 

Trump routinely watches a host of cable news networks, starting his mornings off with CNBC's "Squawk Box," Fox Business Network's "Mornings With Maria" which is hosted by Maria Bartiromo, and Fox News's "Fox and Friends." Trump has repeatedly praised "Fox and Friends" for its favorable coverage towards him, while blasting networks like MSNBC and CNN for their more critical coverage of his administration and policies. He has called the latter "fake news" on a number of occasions, both in public and on Twitter. 

At night, the report said, the president occasionally "hate-watches" cable news shows that are critical of him, sometimes talking on the phone with friends while doing so. Shows and journalists that Trump has frequently lampooned include MSNBC's "Morning Joe," NBC's "Nightly News," and CNN's Jeff Zeleny and Don Lemon.  

Though Trump claimed in a recent interview that he no longer watches MSNBC and CNN, some advisers believe he still tunes in to "Morning Joe" to watch the top of the program. The Post notes that most televisions in the West Wing also almost always have the following four channels airing at all times: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and Fox Business.  

One prominent downside resulting from Trump's ubiquitous cable news consumption is that the president's aides are often in damage control mode after he sends out spontaneous tweets moments after watching news segments, particularly those that air on "Fox and Friends." 

One tweet Trump fired off in March said, "122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!" 

The tweet appeared to be a direct response to a "Fox and Friends"segment on the subject that aired half an hour earlier. 

Trump has also done complete reversals on key campaign stances based on what he last saw on TV.

In the beginning of April, Trump authorized the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's infrastructure and airfield following a devastating chemical weapons attack in a northwestern Syrian province thought to be perpetrated by Assad.

Trump's decision was a swift departure from the noninterventionist "America First" stance he touted throughout the presidential campaign. 

When explaining his justification for the military strike, Trump said he had been moved by the horrendous images of Syrians — particularly infants — who had died and been injured from the attack that dominated television broadcasts at the time. 

"There are many conversations where it ends: 'But of course, God knows, he could watch Fox News tomorrow and change his whole position,'" Rick Wilson, a Republican consultant and frequent Trump critic, told the Post. "They don't get him, because he's a creature of television and they're creatures of politics. They care about the details, he cares about what's on TV." 

Read the full report here»

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Despite a recent loss in a special House race in Kansas, liberal voters and operatives have become energized about their chances in a coming runoff in Georgia's 6th District, a May special election in Montana, and the party's overall chances at flipping multiple House seats in the 2018 midterms and reducing the GOP's 44-seat majority in the House.

Rachel Paule, a grassroots organizer in Georgia, told Business Insider that the biggest indicator she had seen of local Democratic sentiments was the number of "secret liberals who have come out of the woodwork" since President Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 election.

The district in which Paule volunteers has been held by a Republican for the past 40 years — most recently by Tom Price before he became secretary of health and human services. But the race to fill Price's seat has been dominated by the rise of former congressional staffer Jon Ossoff as a serious Democratic contender.

A Republican congressman "was just sort of a given, and a lot of people were afraid to speak out because this is such a conservative area," Paule said of Georgia's 6th District.

Ossoff's candidacy spurred Paule and her fellow organizers into action, in large part because many saw Ossoff as their "first chance" to "make a meaningful change by flipping the seat," Paul said, adding that the most recent Democratic candidate in the district didn't campaign, have a website, take donations, or make appearances.

In a field crowded with Republicans, Ossoff failed to break the 50% threshold in a vote last week needed to avoid a runoff. A runoff for the special election is now set for June 20.

Nonetheless, the Democratic Party is ecstatic about the results — Ossoff received about 48% of the vote, while his closest Republican challenger, Karen Handel, Georgia's former secretary of state, earned about 20%.

"What people have to understand is that Republicans had almost no spin coming out of Georgia," a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee staffer told Business Insider in an interview.

"They said Ossoff would never make it above 40%. In a district that Republicans usually win by 20, 26%, Ossoff got 48.1," the source said. "It's incredible."

Paule said she and other liberals in the community were "really excited" about the results and the campaign so far had been "really inspiring."

Leading up to the runoff between Ossoff and Handel, Paule said, she and other volunteers were focusing primarily on canvassing.

"What we really need are people hitting the pavement," Paule said. "We need people to knock on doors at every corner of the district, people to call voters, and more face-to-face contact to ensure they come out in droves this June."

Democrats are also hopeful that Ossoff can exploit potential weaknesses they believe Handel possesses among suburban conservative voters. A spike in Democratic turnout and a decrease in GOP turnout could swing the district Ossoff's way come June.

"She's known for waging ideological wars, and she was a big spender when she was [Georgia's] secretary of state," the DCCC source said. "That's the kind of stuff that turns off Republicans who are fiscally conservative."

On to Montana

Ossoff's campaign, especially if he's successful in the runoff, could become something of a model for Democrats over the next year and into the 2018 midterm elections, according to the DCCC staffer, who described Republicans as being "stuck between a rock and a hard place."

Democrats are hopeful that voter enthusiasm against Trump and strong grassroots organizing could swing congressional races if discontent over the GOP's lack of effectiveness in Washington decreases Republican turnout.

Democrats in Montana are similarly looking to capitalize on liberal anger and potential conservative apathy by running Rob Quist, a folk singer with a populist streak, for Montana's House seat in the May special election.

While Quist's first rally in Montana in March drew about 70 people, recent rallies have seen hundreds of attendees, according to The Huffington Post.

Washington Democrats initially paid little, if any, attention to the race, which is being held to fill the seat left vacant by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. When The Huffington Post asked Rep. Jim Clyburn, of South Carolina, the DCCC's national mobilization chair, if the committee was planning on getting more involved, Clyburn didn't seem to even know the race was happening.

But after Democrats' surprisingly strong showings in Kansas and Georgia, the DCCC feels differently about Quist's chances in Montana.

"We're actually watching it really closely," the DCCC source said. The committee announced that it would be injecting a six-figure amount into the Montana state party to boost Quist's campaign, DCCC spokeswoman Meredith Kelly told The Huffington Post on Thursday.

After a close call in Georgia's special election, the NRCC also poured $1.2 million in ad buys ahead of Montana's special election.

The energy gap

While Democrats say the remaining 2017 special elections and the 2018 midterms will be a dogfight, Republicans have been wary of a shifting tide in the political sentiment in the country.

A Republican operative familiar with the races said a major concern for the GOP was that the party's base could be complacent after Trump's victory.

"The energy we've seen, there's been a slight downtick, which I think is natural coming off a very contentious election that we won,"the operative told Business Insider before the first round of the Georgia special election.

The operative added that the liberal opposition to Trump was "energized from the get-go" and would be out in full force for the next few elections. Republicans will have to ensure their base is, as the operative said, "reengaged."

Republicans have also seen the energy with which Democrats have raised money for special elections. Ossoff hauled in approximately $8.3 million in the first quarter of 2017.

"You see $8.3 million, that's a significant chunk that somebody can run in their district," said a GOP operative who was familiar with the race. "Essentially, that's what somebody usually raises for a statewide campaign, not an off-year, early special election."

The operative also said he hadn't seen previous fundraising efforts come close to Ossoff's war chest, saying Ossoff's donations came from liberals who were "fired up" about Trump.

"That's very clear. The liberal base dislikes Donald Trump."

The DCCC raised a record $13.6 million in online donations in the first quarter, compared with its Republican counterpart's $1.7 million in online donations. The NRCC still outpaced the DCCC in overall donations, however, raising $36 million compared with the DCCC's $31 million.

Nevertheless, Democrats are focused on drawing out liberals who are angry with Trump and concentrating on what they characterize as the administration's missteps.

'Business as usual'

The first few months of Trump's presidency have been rocky for Trump and his party, whose progress has been hindered by White House infighting, failed attempts at implementing a travel ban, and a failure to repeal and replace President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law.

Though Trump and Republican leadership were working hard to drum up support for the American Health Care Act, the new healthcare bill, in March, many conservatives in Congress faced angry constituents who demanded they vote against the AHCA and keep the Affordable Care Act in place while working to amend it.

During a town hall held by Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, constituents came out in force against the AHCA.

"I'm on Obamacare. If it wasn't for Obamacare, we wouldn't be able to afford insurance," said Chris Peterson, a farmer from Grassley's state. "With all due respect, sir, you're the man that talked about the death panel. We're going to create one big death panel in this country if people can't afford insurance."

Republican Rep. David Brat of Virginia faced similar outrage from his constituents for claiming the ACA had "collapsed."

Some of Trump's core voters have become disaffected since Trump took office in January. His authorization of a military strike against forces of Syrian President Bashar Assad following a devastating chemical weapons attack infuriated some supporters who had voted for Trump because of the isolationist "America First" stance he had adopted throughout his campaign.

"Trump campaigned on not getting involved in Mideast. Said it always helps our enemies & creates more refugees. Then he saw a picture on TV,"tweeted Ann Coulter, the conservative firebrand who has been an ardent Trump supporter.

"Everything is going to s---," one former Trump supporter told Business Insider. "Looks like we're back to business as usual."

And all that has Democrats cautiously optimistic.

"The preconditions for a good election cycle are there," the DCCC source said. "But it's still early and things can change."

Maxwell Tani and Allan Smith contributed to this report.

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Gov. John Kasich of Ohio found something surprising during the first 100 days of President Donald Trump's administration.

Both the White House and congressional Republicans are now "taking a lot of positions that I had during the campaign," he said during a Monday interview with Business Insider while promoting his new book, "Two Paths: America Divided or United."

Kasich listed some of the shifts in Trump's platform with which he not only agreed, but said he favored during his 2016 presidential campaign.

"It's sort of like, I shake my head," he said. "China's not a currency manipulator. We like NATO. We're not going to deport 13 million people.

"It's interesting. You see, it's interesting. Never in my lifetime have I been called boring, but I think I was a boring candidate for president because I tried to be responsible."

Kasich said one of the biggest problems he faced as a candidate was that since he was a sitting governor, he could not make outlandish promises.

"I couldn't actually say that this guy could jump 12 feet in the air and slam dunk over Draymond Green," Kasich said, referring to the Golden State Warriors star and pointing at Business Insider Executive Editor Brett LoGiurato.

"You could say that," LoGiurato said jokingly.

"Yeah, but that would be what we would call 'fake news,'" Kasich quipped back. "So I wouldn't say these things."

Kasich also pointed to a signature promise that many of the Republicans who sought the presidency in 2016 made: ripping apart the Iran nuclear agreement as soon as they took office.

"I'll give you a good one," he said of an example of an outlandish, unfulfilled promise. "'When I'm president, I'm ripping up the Iran deal on Day One!' I haven't seen anyone rip up anything. Including a number of the members of the United States Senate."

Reviewing the first 100 days of Trump's presidency, Kasich said it was far too soon to give the president a grade. The Ohio governor, who at times has been sharply critical of Trump, added that he supported the missile strike on a Syrian government-controlled airfield earlier this month, which followed a chemical attack on civilians that the US has said was carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

During and after the campaign, Trump advocated an "America First," more isolationist foreign policy, touting nonintervention in foreign wars.

"I actually think the Syria strike mattered, and I'll tell you why," Kasich said. "I was at the Munich [Security] Conference with John McCain. And people were really wondering about the country. And I think that strike demonstrated some American strength, which I think some people wanted to see. That was good."

But Kasich, who during his presidential bid advocated a tougher stance against the Syrian government, said he had "yet to see a strategy" on a larger scale from the White House on Syria's civil war and Assad's government.

"But I do think the act in and of itself did have an impact on the world in the way they were looking at us," he said. "I do believe that."

Taking another look at the Trump presidency, Kasich said the administration — like all that preceded it — would be judged on the economy it fosters and leaves behind.

"I think there will be great disappointment if all of a sudden there's not economic growth," he said. "Look, it always gets down to jobs. You don't have economic growth, things go south. If you have economic growth, people feel better about things.

"People would rather live in an area of poverty than in an area where there are no jobs," he continued. "Because if they live in poverty, they have a certain sense of hope they can get out of it. If there are no jobs, there's no hope. And bad things come from that."

Watch part of Business Insider's interview with Kasich:

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PARIS (Reuters) - French intelligence services have concluded that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a sarin nerve gas attack on April 4 in northern Syria and that Assad or his closest entourage ordered the strike, a declassified report showed.

The attack in the town of Khan Sheikhoun killed scores of people and prompted the United States to launch a cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base in response, its first direct assault on the Assad government in the conflict.

The six-page document - drawn up by France's military and foreign intelligence services and seen by Reuters - said it was able to reach its conclusion based on samples they had obtained from the impact strike on the ground, and a blood sample from a victim.

Among the elements found in the samples were hexamine, a hallmark of sarin produced by the Syrian government.

"The French intelligence services consider that only Bashar al-Assad and some of his most influential entourage can give the order to use chemical weapons," the report said.

It added that jihadist groups in the area did not have the capacity to develop and launch such an attack and that Islamic State was not in the region.

Assad's claim to AFP news agency on April 13 that the attack was fabricated, was "not credible" given the mass flows of casualties in a short space of time arriving in Syrian and Turkish hospitals as well as the sheer quantity of online activity showing people with neurotoxic symptoms, said the report.

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Chemical weapons like sarin and VX are known to kill men, women, and children with gruesome efficiency.

While their names differ, both are members of a larger group of human-made substances, called nerve agents, that all target the same system in the body.

The five most common and important nerve agents are tabun, sarin, soman, GF, and VX, according to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. In pure form, each is a colorless and mostly odorless liquid.

Any nerve agent can affect a person through the skin, breathing, ingestion, or all three routes, depending on the substance and how it's used. For example, VX resembles a thick oil but dissolves in water (a drop was enough to kill Kim Jong Un's brother), while sarin (which was spread over a Syria's Idlib province on April 4) quickly evaporates into the air.

Special bombs can weaponize these liquids by rapidly dispersing them into a breathable form.

These two graphics illustrate what nerve agents do to the body and the biochemistry of how they work.

The way nerve agents attack the body's cholinergic system produces these and other symptoms.

Specifically, the chemicals target an enzyme that drifts in the spaces, or synapses, between nerve cells and muscle cells.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu complained on Wednesday that a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base earlier this month had posed a threat to Russian troops and was forcing Moscow to take extra measures to protect them.

Speaking at a security conference in Moscow, Shoigu restated Russia's view that the strike -- which Washington conducted in response to what it said was a deadly chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces -- was "a crude violation of international law."

U.S. officials said at the time that they had informed Russian forces ahead of the strikes. No Russian personnel were injured in the attack.

As well as housing Syrian military jets, satellite imagery suggested that the base which was struck was home to Russian special forces and military helicopters, part of the Kremlin's effort to help the Syrian government fight Islamic State and other militant groups.

"Washington's action created a threat to the lives of our servicemen who are fighting against terrorism in Syria," said Shoigu.

"Such steps are forcing us to take extra measures to ensure the safety of Russian forces." He did not specify what those measures were.

The Russian Defence Ministry said after the U.S. strike that Syrian air defenses would be beefed up, while Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev complained that the attack was just one step away from clashing with the Russian military.

(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Andrey Ostroukh)

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LONDON — The British government would agree to a request from Donald Trump to attack Syria, even without the support of the UK parliament, Boris Johnson has said.

The Foreign Secretary told the Today Programme on Thursday that Britain would almost certainly agree to join an attack on the Assad regime, even without first putting it to a vote in parliament.

"If the Americans choose to act again, and they ask us to help, I think it will be very difficult to say no," Johnson said.

Asked whether that would need the approval of Parliament, Johnson replied: "I think that needs to be tested."

Pushed again on this point, he replied: "I think it would be very difficult for us to say no."

Former Coalition Prime Minister David Cameron lost a House of Commons vote on authorising strikes against Syria in 2013 after Conservative and Liberal Democrat rebels joined with Labour in opposing action.

Since then the government has accepted the convention that parliament must first authorise military action.

However, parliament is set to have an extended summer recess this year because of the upcoming general election.

MPs can be recalled at the request of government, though, in order to deal with "events of major national importance."

Brexit dividend

Johnson was also pressed on the question of whether the NHS will receive the £350m extra a week promised it by the pro-Brexit campaign group Vote Leave in the run-up to the June referendum. The UK Statistics Authority has described the figure as misleading and likely to undermine trust in statistics.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday threw doubt on the possibility of the pledge being honoured, saying that the UK would only get a dividend if Brexit negotiations went well.

Johnson defended the contentious pledge, however, saying that Theresa May would be free to "control" the money it currently sends to the EU, after Brexit.

However, he repeatedly refused to say whether Britain would be willing to pay up to £60bn for Britain's "divorce bill" to the EU, insisting only that they were not willing to continue paying "huge sums of money in the long term" to the EU.

He also dismissed suggestions this week from David Cameron that trade talks with the EU would only begin after the divorce bill had been settled.

"That's not going to happen," he insisted.

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ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi paramilitary units captured the northern province of Hatra on Thursday, cutting off several desert tracks used by Islamic State to move between Iraq and Syria, the military.

The operations in Hatra are carried out by Popular Mobilisation, a coalition of mostly Iranian-trained militias of Shi'ite volunteers formed in 2014 after Islamic State, a hardline Sunni group, overran a third of Iraq.

The militias on Wednesday dislodged Islamic State from the ancient ruins of Hatra, which suffered great destruction under the militants' three-year rule, a military spokesman said.

Hatra, a city that flourished in the first century AD, lies 125 km (80 miles) south of Mosul, where the militants have been fighting off a U.S.-backed offensive since October.

The militants are now surrounded in the northwestern part of Mosul, including the Old City and its landmark Grand al-Nuri Mosque from where their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared in mid-2014 a caliphate also spanning parts of Syria.

Mosul is by far the largest city that had fallen to the militants in both countries. The density of the population is slowing the advance of Iraqi forces.

Hatra is also located west of Hawija, a region north of Baghdad still under Islamic State control.

Popular Mobilisation, which operates with the approval of Iraq's Shi'ite-led government, said on Tuesday the Hatra campaign aims at cutting off Islamic State's routes between Hawija, Mosul and eastern Syria.

Iraq's border region with Syria is a historic hotbed of the Sunni insurgency against the rule of the Shi'ite majority community, empowered after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; editing by Angus MacSwan)

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AMMAN (Reuters) - Jets believed to be Russian or Syrian hit two hospitals in rebel-held Idlib province on Thursday following several other strikes on medical facilities in northwestern Syria in recent weeks, residents, medical workers and activists said.

Rescue workers said one strike early on Thursday hit a hospital in Deir al Sharqi, killing at least three medics and injuring others. The second strike hit a cave hospital in Maar Zita village in southern Idlib province where medics said at least five were killed.

"The regime and the Russians are trying to systematically target the remaining hospitals in Idlib to make life for people in liberated areas intolerable," said Younis Abdul Rahim, a civil defense worker who visited both sites.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has repeatedly denied that his forces target hospitals or other emergency facilities. Russia, whose air force joined the war on his side in 2015, also denies targeting civilian infrastructure.

Rescue workers say that, although many field hospitals have been moved underground, that has not been enough to protect them from bombs they say have hit at least eight medical facilities since the start of the month.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it was appalled by the ongoing damage of medical facilities in northern Syria, adding that the destruction was depriving thousands of people of basic health services.

Among the hospitals put out of service was one specializing in maternity and child care, the OCHA said on Wednesday.

An air strike believed to be conducted by either Syrian or Russian jets hit a hospital in Kafr Takharim in Idlib on Tuesday and medical workers said at least 14 were killed, among them patients.

"It is completely unacceptable that facilities and people who are trying to save lives are being bombed," said Kevin Kennedy, the OCHA's regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis. Hospital attacks have killed hundreds of medical personnel since the war began, he added.

Syrian civil defense emergency workers who track jet movement and radio traffic to warn civilians of potential air strikes say Syria's air force and Russian jets have recently intensified their bombardment of Idlib province.

Tens of thousands of displaced Syrians have found refuge in the province that borders Turkey after being driven out of their homes. It is a main stronghold of the opposition forces, mainly Islamist-led rebel groups.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Gareth Jones)

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U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday rejected Russia's argument that it was working for peace in Syria, and told the UN Security Council that they all need to put more pressure on Russia.

"I listened to my Russian colleague, and he talked about task forces, and diplomacy, and less criticism of the Syrian regime," Haley said after the Russian ambassador spoke. "Where has that gotten us? It hasn't gotten us anywhere."

"And then, the times where we could actually do something as a Security Council, who's the one member state that continues to protect the regime that's keeping this humanitarian assistance from going through?" she said, referring to Russia.

"Many of you said, we need to put pressure on the Syrian regime. That's actually not the case," she said. "We need to put pressure on Russia, because Russia continues to cover for the Syrian regime. Russia continues to allow them to keep humanitarian aid from the people that need it."

"Russia continues to cover for a leader who uses chemical weapons against his own people," Haley pursued. "Russia continues to veto, and Assad continues to do these things because they know Russia will continue to cover for them."

It was Haley's latest attempt to turn the screws on Russia, which the U.S. says is responsible for support Syrian President Bashar Assad's war against his own people.

U.S. pressure on Russia has increased at the UN under President Trump, especially in light of Russia's attempt to block resolutions condemning Syria's chemical attacks against its population. In April, Russia for the eighth time blocked a resolution aimed at calling out Syria's actions during the bloody civil war.

"All eyes and all pressure now need to go to Russia, because they are the ones that could stop this if they wanted to," she concluded. "So don't listen to the distractions of what they're trying to say, pointing to other conflicts."

After her remarks, Russia's ambassador argued that his country, Turkey and Iran are "bearing their weight of work to ensure there is compliance with the cessation of hostilities."

He also said Haley didn't say "a word" about how they were trying to improve the situation.

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Israel received three F-35s from the US on Tuesday, bringing its total inventory of the revolutionary fighter up to five, but according to a French journalist citing French intelligence reports, Israeli F-35s have already carried out combat missions in Syria.

In Air Forces Monthly, Thomas Newdick summarized a report from Georges Malbrunot at the French newspaper Le Figaro that said Israel took its F-35s out on a combat mission one month after getting them from the US.

Malbrunot reported that on January 12, Israeli F-35s took out a Russian-made S-300 air defense system around Syrian President Bashar Assad's palace in Damascus and a Russian-made Pantsir-S1 mobile surface-to-air missile system set for delivery to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel has repeatedly and firmly asserted that its goal to make sure weapons cannot reach Hezbollah, a terror group that has sworn to seek the destruction of Israel.

In March, Israel said it had conducted an airstrike in Syria.

"When we know about an attempt to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah, we do whatever we can to prevent this from happening, provided we have sufficient information and capabilities to react," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, according to Russian state-run media.

However, the other details of the story seem unlikely. The only known S-300 system in Syria is operated by the Russians near their naval base, so hitting that would mean killing Russian service members. There are no reports that this happened.

Tyler Rogoway of The Drive pointed out that the Pantsir-S1 air defenses would bolster Hezbollah in Lebanon, but Israel wouldn't be under immediate pressure to destroy this system. Its jets have advanced air-defense-suppression and electronic-warfare capabilities that limit the threat posed by the Pantsir-S1 and make it unlikely that Israel would risk F-35s to attack it.

But parts of the French report hold up — there was indeed an airstrike on January 12 at the Mezzeh air base. The Syrian government accused Israel of the strike, according to the BBC.

Jeff Halper, the author of "War Against the People," a book that looks at the military ties between Israel and the US, told Al Jazeera that Israeli pilots may be the first to see combat action in the F-35.

"Israel serves as the test-bed for the development of these kinds of new weapons," Halper said. "The F-35 will be tested in the field, in real time, by Israel. The likelihood is that the first time the plane is used in combat will be with Israeli pilots flying it."

The F-35's stealth abilities remain untested, and only in a heavily contested environment could the F-35 really meet its match. In the past, F-35 pilots have complained that surface-to-air threats are not advanced enough to provide realistic training, and the Air Force has run short on adversary services to provide enough competition to prove the F-35's capabilities.

In the case of the S-300, experts have told Business Insider that it would take a stealth jet like the F-35 to safely take it out.

While the details of the strike remain sketchy and unverifiable, Halper's "test-bed" assertion has in the past been true of US-Israeli defense projects, like missile defenses. Rogoway also said Israel's history of rushing new platforms to the front lines was possible supporting evidence.

On Thursday, the Syrian government again accused Israel of an airstrike, this one near Damascus International Airport.

Short of taking responsibility for the attack, Israeli officials said they supported strikes on Hezbollah targets.

According to the BBC, Israeli's intelligence minister, Israel Katz, told Israeli Army Radio: "I can confirm that the incident in Syria corresponds completely with Israel's policy to act to prevent Iran's smuggling of advanced weapons via Syria to Hezbollah in Iran. Naturally, I don't want to elaborate on this."

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The Hague (AFP) - Experts from the world's watchdog tasked with destroying chemical weapons are probing reports that toxic arms have been used 45 times in Syria since late last year, the body's chief said Friday.

Director general Ahmet Uzumcu said there was "a huge list of allegations" of the use of toxic arms reported to the operations hub of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

In the "second part of 2016, 30 different incidents, and since the beginning of this year, 15 separate incidents, so 45," he told a reporters, brandishing a list of several pages which he chose to keep confidential.

They include the April 4 sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun that was reported to have killed 88 people, including 31 children.

"All these allegations are recorded by our experts, who follow this every day from our operations centre," Uzumcu said.

The OPCW is currently trying to ensure it is safe enough to deploy its fact-finding team to the town for further analysis, after Uzumcu said last week that "incontrovertible" test results from OPCW-designated labs on samples taken from victims showed sarin gas or a similar substance had been used.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has "already stated that they would support this mission, actually they have invited us to go via Damascus," he said.

"The problem is that this area is controlled by different armed opposition groups, so we need to strike some deals with them to ensure a temporary ceasefire, which we understand the Syrian government is willing to do," he added.

"If we can put all this together then we will deploy. The team is ready, and we have the volunteers."

However, it is not yet mandated to also visit the Shayrat air base in the central Syrian province of Homs.

The base was the target of a US strike launched in the wake of the Khan Sheikhun attack, and Russia has called for the allegations that it was stocking chemical weapons to be investigated.

Uzumcu also confirmed that the OPCW, based in The Hague, believed jihadist rebels from the so-called Islamic State group had used "sulphur mustard" near Iraq's second city of Mosul last week.

The Iraqi military said some security personnel were injured in the April 15 attack as part of the operation to recapture Mosul.

The OPCW has offered to help Iraqi forces investigate, but "they have not yet requested any assistance," Uzumcu said.

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A new video produced by the New York Times shows how the version of events put forward by Syria and Russia about a chemical attack in Syria's Idlib province earlier this month don't quite add up. 

The April 4 attack in Khan Sheikhun, Syria, killed at least 58 people, including 11 children. 

The video highlights how the Syrian regime's claims — backed up by its longtime ally, Russia — about the time and location of the attack, and whether or not Syria still possesses chemical weapons, are not in line with the evidence. 

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, maintain that Syrian warplanes carried out a conventional attack early in the afternoon on the outskirts of Khan Sheikhun. Eyewitness accounts from doctors and civilians, however, put the time of attack at 6:43 a.m., local time.

The Syrian and Russian governments also claim that the airstrike targeted facilities that contained chemical weapons. But satellite images and old video footage show the chemical weapons were dropped on civilians homes. 

Moreover, Syria and Russia seem to contradict each other on which buildings were hit. Russia claims depots destroyed by bombs in 2015 were struck. Assad, however, told an AFP reporter that the facility "could be a store, it could be a warehouse, it could be a depot."

Assad also claimed that Syria has not had chemical weapons since 2013, when it agreed to have them shipped out of the country and destroyed as part of a deal brokered by the US and Russia. Assad pointed to an early statement released by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which announced that Syria "is free of any chemical materials."

But a 2016 OPCW report said that "Syria has not yet adequately explained the presence of indicators of four chemical weapons agents."

Watch the video below:

SEE ALSO: Dozens of people reported dead in suspected chemical attack in Syria

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Istanbul (AFP) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said Ankara was "seriously saddened" by footage showing American military vehicles operating close to the border with Syrian Kurdish fighters Turkey sees as a terror group.

The Syrian Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) are seen by Washington as the most effective fighting force in the battle against jihadists in Syria.

Ankara says the fighters of the YPG are merely the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who have waged an insurgency since 1984 inside Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead.

Turkish forces last week carried out air strikes on YPG positions in Syria, angering the United States and sparking days of border clashes with the Kurdish fighters.

The US sent military vehicles with American flags to the Syrian side of the frontier accompanied by YPG fighters to carry out patrols, in an apparent bid to prevent further fighting.

"Unfortunately... the presence of an American flag along with the (insignia) of a terror organisation called YPG in a convoy has seriously saddened us," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul before heading on a trip to India.

The difference of opinion over the YPG has cast a shadow over US-Turkish relations for some time and Erdogan is hoping for a drastic change in US policy when he meets President Donald Trump next month.

"We will bring this up when we meet Mr President on May 16," said Erdogan.

He expressed regret that the US-YPG cooperation -- which began under the former Barack Obama administration -- was being continued under the new president.

"This needs to be stopped right now," said Erdogan. "Otherwise it will continue to be a bother in the region and for us."

"It will also bother us as two NATO countries and strategic partners," he said.

Erdogan reaffirmed that Turkey could again bomb the YPG positions at any time it wanted.

"I said yesterday: 'We can come unexpectedly in the night'. I really meant that. We are not going to tip off the terror groups and the Turkish Armed Forces could come at any moment."

"Better they live in fear than we have worries," he said. 

SEE ALSO: A US service member was killed in blast near Mosul, Iraq

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BAGHDAD (AP) — Investigations conducted during the month of March reveal that U.S.-led coalition airstrikes targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria killed 45 civilians, mostly in and around the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to a Pentagon statement released Sunday.

In each incident, the Pentagon said "all feasible precautions were taken," but the strikes still resulted in "unintentional" loss of civilian life.

The report did not include findings from an ongoing investigation into a March 17 strike targeting Islamic State group fighters in Mosul. That strike resulted in more than 100 civilian deaths, according to reports from residents. Last month, the U.S. acknowledged coalition planes conducted a strike "at the location corresponding to allegations of civilian casualties," but did not confirm the reports of high civilian casualties.

Coalition officials have declined to give a time frame as to when the investigation into the incident will be complete.

The Pentagon acknowledged at least 352 civilians have been killed by coalition strikes in Iraq and Syria since the start of the air campaign against IS in 2014. Activists and monitoring groups put the number much higher. The London-based monitoring group Airwars reported that coalition strikes have killed more than 3,000 civilians in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

The March 17 strike sparked outrage in Iraq and beyond with calls from local government officials as well as the United Nations for greater restraint in the fight against IS for Mosul. The United Nations reported nearly 2,000 civilians have been treated for trauma since the fight for western Mosul began in February following the formal launch of the operation to retake Mosul in October 2016.

Iraqi forces declared Mosul's eastern half "fully liberated" in January, but have since struggled to retake the city's western side. Claustrophobic terrain and tens of thousands of civilians being held by the extremists as human shields have bogged Iraqi and coalition forces down.

The Sunday statement also included the findings of an audit begun in March that inspected the way the U.S.-led coalition reports and tracks civilian casualties in the fight against IS. The statement said the audit found that 80 civilian deaths caused by coalition airstrikes had not been previously publicly reported and two civilian deaths previously reported were found to have not been caused by the coalition.

The U.S. began the campaign of airstrikes against IS in 2014 after the extremists pushed into Iraq from Syria, overrunning Mosul and large swaths of Iraq's north and west. Since then Iraqi forces have slowly clawed back territory. Now a cluster of western Mosul neighborhoods are the last significant urban terrain under IS control in Iraq.

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Tabqa (Syria) (AFP) - US-backed fighters cornered the Islamic State group in a last part of Tabqa on Monday, after tearing down a huge jihadist flag that had fluttered over the northern Syrian city. 

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters, were in control of all but a fifth of Tabqa as of early Monday, a monitor said.

The city sits on a strategic supply route about 55 kilometres (35 miles) west of IS's main Syrian stronghold Raqa and served as a key IS command base.

The SDF broke into Tabqa from the south a week ago and have steadily advanced north, squeezing IS in three contiguous neighbourhoods on the bank of the Euphrates River.

At dawn on Monday, IS fighters withdrew from the western-most district towards the other two neighbourhoods, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

"The SDF now controls more than 80 percent of Tabqa," Abdel Rahman said, with IS only holding the two northern neighbourhoods of Hurriyah and Wahdah.

Clashes and bombing raids by the US-led coalition rocked the city on Monday, the Observatory said.

In the aptly named Flag Roundabout in Tabqa's west, an AFP correspondent on Sunday saw an SDF fighter climb a ladder propped on a huge flagpole.

He triumphantly pulled down an enormous black IS flag, dropping it to the rubble-littered street as fellow fighters cheered and took pictures. 

"We've brought down Daesh's flag and we'll hang our own -- the flag of the Syrian Democratic Forces," SDF fighter Zaghros Kobane told AFP, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Other IS propaganda could still be seen around the city, including a billboard of a balaclava-wearing jihadist with three warplanes behind him. 

"We will be victorious despite the global coalition," the billboard read. 

'Toughest Battle' 

The city is home to an estimated 85,000 people, including IS fighters from other areas, and is also adjacent to the strategic Tabqa dam, which remains under IS control.

To circumvent the dam, SDF fighters have been using a makeshift ferry to run supplies across Lake Assad, an enormous reservoir created by the barrier. 

The SDF said their hard-fought advance had seen jihadists surrendering in large numbers. 

"Tabqa is the toughest battle we've ever waged," said SDF commander Jako Zerkeh, nicknamed "The Wolf".

Zerkeh said the SDF had used new tactics -- including the waterway supply line and an airlift behind enemy lines in late March -- to kickstart the offensive. 

"These were a huge surprise to them (IS) and shattered their morale... Dozens of Daesh fighters have surrendered. There were more surrenders here than any other town," he told AFP.

The AFP correspondent in Tabqa on Sunday saw SDF fighters guarding a group of blindfolded, bearded men that a security official said were suspected IS fighters.

They were waiting to transport them across Lake Assad and into SDF-controlled territory on the northern bank of the reservoir. 

The makeshift ferry is made out of a piece of floating bridge that has been lashed to two small boats, and is also used to take civilians fleeing Tabqa into safety.  

'Wrath of the Euphrates'

The assault on Tabqa began in late March when SDF forces and their US-led coalition allies were airlifted behind IS lines.

The SDF surrounded Tabqa in early April before pushing into the city on April 24, as part of their flagship offensive for Raqa further east.

That assault, dubbed "Wrath of the Euphrates", was launched in November and has seen SDF fighters capture swathes of countryside around the city. 

More than 320,000 people have been killed in Syria since the country's war began with anti-government protests in March 2011.

The US-led coalition bombing IS in Syria and Iraq said on Sunday that its strikes had unintentionally killed 352 civilians since the intervention began in 2014.

From November to early March, coalition strikes killed 45 civilians, the coalition said in a statement.

Critics say the real total number of civilian casualties is much higher than the tally reported by the US military.

The coalition insists IS has targeted civilians and used them as human shields, making it difficult to avoid civilian casualties despite its state-of-the-art technology.

SEE ALSO: ISIS is losing territory on all fronts — here's what the group leaves behind

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Hours shy of his 100th day in power, President Trump strides into the Oval Office. The energy in the world's most famous room changes instantly and perceptibly as he sits down.

It's a little after 3 in the afternoon. Trump says he already has been up and working for 12 hours. He and first lady Melania Trump have met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri and his wife, Juliana Awada.

He has signed an executive order, creating an office to protect Veterans Affairs Department whistleblowers. Then he signed another, ordering an investigation of the relationship between aluminum imports and national security.

Staffers walk briskly in and out of the complex of offices; a line of journalists fills a hallway, waiting to interview the president.

His daughter Ivanka, perhaps his most trusted adviser, has just departed.

Now, as an exclusive conversation with the Washington Examiner begins, the words, the tone, the messages are vintage Trump: All the familiar superlatives, the choppy sentences, the insistence that his first 100 days have been the best of any president.

Over the next 40 minutes, he jumps, in classic Trump fashion, over a range of topics, from his relations with foreign leaders to the danger of North Korea, from the election last year to his hopes for America tomorrow.

Yet listen closely, especially when he speaks about decisions involving life and death, and you sense that sitting here, in the Oval Office, as the 45th president has humbled even Donald J. Trump.

"You can make a mistake in deals, and you work it out," he explains at one point. "You make a mistake here, there is nothing to work out. You know it's trouble. It could be big trouble. And it is life-threatening trouble for lots of people, potentially."

A portrait of Thomas Jefferson hangs to his right, one of Andrew Jackson, perhaps his favorite president, is to his left. A bust of a sober-looking Abraham Lincoln sits beneath Jefferson, while Trump's father smiles broadly from a black-and-white photo behind the Resolute Desk, given by Queen Victoria in 1880 to Rutherford B. Hayes and used by many presidents since.

"It's a very intensive process," he says of the presidency. "Really intense. I get up to bed late and I get up early." He rarely sleeps more than four hours, which is good, he explains, because he can call leaders around the world in the dark hours while the rest of Washington sleeps.

"When I was doing many real estate deals at one time, I always thought that was going to be more comprehensive and lengthier than a day like this.

"It's not."

So far into his presidency, as with so many modern-era presidents before him, much of his focus has been on challenges from abroad.

Freeing a prisoner

Last week, the Trump administration flew Aya Hijazi, an Egyptian-American aid worker, home to the United States after negotiating her release from a three-year captivity in Egypt.

Trump felt strongly about achieving Hijazi's release, he says, when he met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in April in the Oval Office.

"As you know, President Obama tried to have Aya released for three and a half years," he says. "They were unsuccessful. I was with President el-Sissi for 10 minutes. During that 10-minute session, I said it would be a great honor for this country and I think it would be a very positive step if Aya were released."

Trump explains that Sissi replied, "I would like to consider that," to which Trump responded that he considered the issue "really very" important.

"And he was so great. He not only released Aya, he released her husband, and he released eight people total ... I thought it was fantastic."

Sissi, he concludes, is a good man: "I know that he didn't like President Obama, and I know President Obama did not like him. But I do like him. And I thought it was a great and brilliant gesture.

"And I very much appreciated it. She would have been in jail for 28 years. She is a young person. She is a good person. She is a totally innocent person."

Hijazi, a graduate of George Mason University in Virginia, was arrested in 2014 with her husband, Mohamed Hassanein. Both worked at Beladi Foundation, which she founded to care for homeless children in Cairo.

A smiling Hijazi visited the president at the White House after her release last week.

A legitimate 'red line'

In sharp contrast, Trump authorized the U.S. Navy to fire 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles against Syria in April after the regime of Bashar Assad attacked civilians with chemical weapons.

It was, he admits, his toughest decision so far.

"I legitimized President Obama's red line in the sand," he says. "Which we had to do. I mean, somebody had to do it."

Nevertheless, it was, he says, an incredibly difficult moment: "First of all, it is a hard decision. You don't know what is going to happen," once the missiles are fired. "Is one of them going to go haywire and end up in a city or in a town and kill a lot of people?

"But it was an important decision. Not an easy decision to make. Because you know, when you say 'yes,' there is death.

"And death is very tough. Very tough. There is a lot of weight on this kind of decision."

A 'tipping point' in North Korea

If his Syria decision was "tough," those yet to be made on North Korea and its nuclear weapons sound absolutely nightmarish.

Trump hopes for a diplomatic solution, he says, while bracing himself for something worse.

"North Korea weighs on me, but we have to be prepared for the worst," he says. "We have to be prepared to do what we have to do. We cannot allow this to go on."

He describes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as "very threatening ... saying terrible things. And people can't do that."

On the other hand, he has nothing but praise for Chinese President Xi Jinping, especially Xi's efforts to prevent conflict involving its erstwhile ally, North Korea.

Trump says he has pressed the Chinese leader to use his influence to halt any further North Korean tests of nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles that could, one day, threaten the United States.

Clearly, he sees Xi as a friend and an asset when it comes to dealing with North Korea. Yet, the relationship sounds deeper, more personal, too — a stark contrast with the presidential campaign, when he frequently cited China as a currency-manipulating rival.

His meeting with the Chinese leader at Trump's Florida retreat, Mar-a-Lago, seems to have changed the dynamic between them.

"President XI of China, who I think is a very good person, wants the best for his people," he says. "... I think he is a fantastic person. Now, maybe he won't do anything for the United States or maybe he will. But I think he is a very good person, and my opinion of that won't change.

"So when I met him at Mar-a-Lago, which is a dealmakers paradise, and we sat in that living room, in these big beautiful chairs, and we sat there, it was supposed to be a 10-minute one-on-one, then we go into a breakout room where we have 40 people — 40 people, you know, 40 each — and that was going to be the whole day."

But Trump recounts being told by Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the global private-equity firm Blackstone, "that President Xi is a great guy and, if you could, get to know him one-on-one [rather] than sitting in the big breakout room.

"So we sat for 10 minutes, but the 10 minutes turned out to be three hours."

The same thing happened the next day. "And, so, now we have a real relationship. I spoke to him again two days ago. He is a great guy. Now, with that being said, he is in love with China, and he is in love with the people of China. And that is a great thing.

"But I think he is going to try to help us with North Korea. Because he does not want to see us wanting to attack North Korea. And I think he would love to see if he could work something out."

Even so, the administration has been pressing the United Nations to enact more sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, while U.S. military maneuvers are being conducted alongside South Korean forces near their capital, Seoul.

Amid all of the administration's dealings with the U.N., Trump says he likes "a lot" of world leaders.

"Well, believe it or not, I have a great relationship with [German] Chancellor Angela Merkel," he says, refuting reports that he refused to shake her hand during a meeting. "I shook hands with her four times before I sat down. ... We get along great."

The same is true, he says, of Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and of Britain's Theresa May: "I thought she was great."

As for Russia's Vladimir Putin, the source of so much trouble for his administration, he says simply that they haven't met yet.

Staying connected

Although foreign affairs have been a preoccupation, the one thing Trump insists he will not stop doing is staying connected to Americans, in particular, to those who voted for him.

"I love my people," he says. "They are the greatest people."

And with that, he reaches across the Resolute Desk for a sheet of paper showing a map of the United States. It illustrates the latest figures from the 2016 electoral map, and it is covered in a sea of red ink.

"That's the final map of the numbers — not bad, right?" he says. "The red is us, the blue is Hillary. There is a lot of red."

How does that make him feel? He lingers over the map, takes a deep breath.

"Very, very honored. And proud. And I love the people of this country. These people are incredible people."

He is not worried about staying connected to them.

"I think I am doing that," he says, pointing as one example to the executive orders on protecting U.S.-made aluminum and steel that he signed in the past 10 days.

"And, you know, that is just a first step. You can't do what you want to do. You have to do the steps, you have to do the study, you have to review the study, you have to go through a process and then you have to do what you have to do."

Bringing back skilled and well-paid workers involved in manufacturing aluminum, steel, other goods? It's going to happen, he insists, and very soon.

"We have been tremendously mistreated by the world, with dumping" of foreign-made products, he insists.

But, he continues, "we have a great country, and it is turning around. And there has never been optimism like this before."

He promises, as he did during the campaign, to get rid "of tremendous regulations," to help American companies compete more easily in the world market and to put more of America's citizens back to work.

That leads, naturally, to an assessment of his own work in his first 100 days, which is, predictably, that no president "has ever done what I have done" even though "the first-hundred-day standard is ridiculous."

"Well, I think that the Supreme Court is very important," he explains, "because every 5-to-4 decision is because of me. And that could go on for 40 years," since his first appointment to the court, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, "is a young man" at age 49.

"Don't forget, I got him nominated and confirmed in those 100 days," he adds, not willing to give up the 100-day argument quite yet.

What about longer-term, after four or even eight years of a Trump presidency?

"What I would like to do is peace. Have great strength for the country. And jobs."

As the interview ends, the room suddenly fills with White House officials once again: Vice President Mike Pence, who gives this reporter two big hugs; chief of staff Reince Priebus, who shakes hands warmly and chats happily about political trends and gossip; campaign manager and now presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, smiling broadly and offering an update on her children.

An atmosphere — friendly, happy, energetic — infuses the Oval Office, already glowing with afternoon sunlight. You find yourself wondering what the next discussion among these figures will be, how it might add to two centuries of history, sometimes good, sometimes terrifying, that has unfolded within these curved walls.

And you wonder, too, what keeps this president awake at night?

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump and Russia President Vladimir Putin held a "very good" conversation about the ongoing crisis on Syria.

A White House readout of the phone calls says the two leaders discussed the creation of safe zones in Syria and agreed that the suffering in Syria "has gone on for far too long."

Tuesday's call was the first known discussion between the leaders since the U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian government air base. Russia is one of the Syrian regime's most important backers.

A Russian news agency says Trump and Putin also discussed holding their first in-person meeting in July on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Germany.

SEE ALSO: Trump schedules another phone call with Russia's Vladimir Putin for Tuesday

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he told Russian President Vladimir Putin that a lack of coordination between Jerusalem and Moscow in the skies over Syria could lead to a conflict between the two countries.

"Either we coordinate between our militaries in order that we will not clash with each other — the two armies are very close to one another — or we come into conflict with each other," Netanyahu said he told Putin in an interview with the Russian-language Channel 9 Wednesday.

"I said to him 'I prefer that we coordinate against a clash.' They call this in English 'deconfliction.' He said to me 'I agree.' And we coordinated," he added.

Russia entered the Syrian civil war in 2015 in support of the regime of President Bashar Assad, carrying out bombing runs against rebel groups fighting against Damascus.

While Israel has rarely acknowledged carrying out airstrikes in Syria, a number of attacks against weapons transfers have been attributed to Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said shortly after Russia entered the war, he told Putin Israeli forces would continue to act against "the transfer of very dangerous weapons from Iran by way of Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon."

Netanyahu also said that while the coordination between Israel and Russia has so far helped to prevent a clash, he meets often with Putin in order to ensure that the cooperation continues.

"Every few months we need to tighten the screws," he said.

"We are truly concerned with preventing a clash between our militaries because this is something that is not just bad for us, but bad for Russia. And I am happy that we have succeeded in doing this."

Despite the coordination between the two countries, reported Israeli airstrikes in Syria on weapons convoys have led to tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow.

Last month, Moscow summoned Israel's ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren, to protest a reported Israeli strike that nearly hit Russian troops stationed in the area. Syria's ambassador to the UN later said that Russia had changed its policy and no longer grants Israel freedom of action over Syrian skies.

Netanyahu subsequently denied reports Moscow had told Israel to end airstrikes in Syria, vowing that the IDF would continue attacking weapons convoys.

A number of airstrikes since have been attributed to Israel.

In the interview aired Wednesday, Netanyahu also said that he has told Putin that Russia's alliance with Iran in the Syrian civil war will ultimately harm Russia.

"Iran is not only a threat to us, in the end it will also be a threat to you," he said he told the Russian leader.

Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.

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