BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli forces will continue to operate against Iran in Syria but stressed the need to coordinate closely with the Russian armed forces.

Netanyahu was speaking after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow yesterday that Netanyahu described as “good and productive”.

Netanyahu said the two leaders talked about the Iranian presence in Syria and the S-300 air defence system that Russia delivered to Syria in September. Netanyahu said: “Israel will continue to operate as it needs to protect itself from Iranian aggression in Syria”. But he stressed that Israel will do this in close coordination with Russia to avoid accidents.

The Prime Minister was due to visit Moscow last week but cancelled at the last minute in order to facilitate the controversial merger between the Jewish Home and Otzma Yehudit parties for the 9 April election. This was the Prime Minister’s 11^th meeting with Putin since 2015, a number surpassed only by leaders from former Soviet-bloc countries.

Netanyahu talked about Russia and Israel’s “excellent bilateral relations, which are due to the over one million Russian speakers who have contributed greatly to Israel”. He added that “tourism is at an all-time peak” and  praised “all of the good things we have done together, such as the pensions agreement, 96% of which is being realised”.

It was the first proper meeting between the two leaders since an incident in September in which a Russian surveillance aircraft was shot down by Syrian missiles. Moscow blamed Israel for the incident as the Syrian missiles were fired after Israeli planes bombed targets in Syria. Senior diplomatic officials said the incident was discussed at the meeting, but added that both countries had moved beyond it.