A plan initially promoted by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu involved propping up Syrian President Bashar Assad as Netanyahu believed that he was capable of ridding Iranian militias from his country’s borders. But according to a recent report from Israel Hayom, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has taken a more neutral stance on the matter as he isn’t convinced that Assad can remove Iranian forces from Syria.

The plan was premised on the notion that international acceptance of Assad’s victory in the civil war would result in an agreement with world powers that he would rid Syria of Iranian forces.

Israel Hayom also reported that the initiative to launder Assad was initially raised by Jerusalem three years ago and attended by the national security advisers of Israel, Russia, and the US.

During talks with then-US National Security Adviser John Bolton and Russia’s Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev, then-National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, the trio presented a multi-layered plan whereby Assad would order all foreign forces that came into Syria since 2011 to withdraw from the country’s borders deeming their presence unnecessary. Syria would then be accepted into the Arab League, enjoying member-state status, as well as Arab Gulf states. The plan also involved the United Arab Emirates investing in Syria’s economy instead of Iran, as Tehran has been overtaking Syria’s economy. Syrian would also agree to several reforms to be determined in talks in Vienna. Among the planned reforms are the general elections in Syria.

At the time, Netanyahu approved the initiative and appointed Ben-Shabbat to represent Israel before the Arab states that maintain ties with Jerusalem. This includes the Gulf states.

Jordan appeared to be the most enthusiastic about the initiative, as Amman has hosted millions of Syrian refugees who fled to the Hashemite Kingdom since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war. Egypt showed great interest in the plan.

Jerusalem has not had any direct or indirect contact with Damascus since the plan was initiated.

As the civil war came to an end, Israeli officials believed Assad’s reign has also reached its conclusion. Assad has since only been able to engage in the international arena with support from the Kremlin.

“In the diplomatic system, the belief was that in the conditions created, the acceptance of Assad from here and the ousting of Iran from here was the best possible result we could achieve,” the official said.

“In principle, there was agreement among the various countries that this was the right thing to do, although as a result of the frequent election campaigns in Israel and the regime change in the US and Israel later on, the process did not progress,” a senior official said to Israel Hayom.

The official noted that the National Security Council was aware that Assad lacked the forces capable of compelling Iran to withdraw the militias from its territory by itself. In light of this hurdle, an international procedure was considered “in the hope that it would ultimately bring results. There is no other way of removing the Iranians from Syria. Only a combination of military strikes and a diplomatic process can make them retreat. In this plan, the objective was the creation of the delegitimization of the Iranian presence in Syria. To that end, the support of and agreement between the US and Russia was necessary, first and foremost, and they were indeed achieved,” the official added.