BICOM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia today to discuss developments in Syria.

In what will be the second meeting between the two leaders this year, Netanyahu and Putin are expected to discuss regional developments in light of rising tensions along Israel’s northern border and Iran’s growing military presence in Syria. The meeting will follow the annual parade marking the victory over Nazi Germany, which they will both attend.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu accused Iran of deploying “very dangerous weapons” in Syria with the ultimate aim of destroying his country. Iran, “openly calls, daily, for the destruction, the elimination of Israel from the face of the earth and practices unmitigated aggression against us,” Netanyahu said at the end of a three-way meeting with the leaders of Cyprus and Greece in the Cypriot capital Nicosia.

His trip to Russia comes hours after a strike, reportedly carried out by Israel, on a military site linked to Iranian fighters south of Damascus.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the strike killed nine fighters belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps or to Iranian-backed Shia militia. Syria’s official SANA news outlet said that the country’s air defences intercepted two missiles over the el-Kiswah area, which in 2017 the BBC reported to be the location of a permanent military base for Iran. The report did not specify how many missiles were fired.

Yediot Ahronoth military correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai said the Syrian report of Israel carrying out the strike could support the IDF’s recent warning that Iran has been trying to launch missiles at Israel in the past few days.

Yesterday the Israeli military gave instructions to open the shelters in the Golan Heights in light of what it identified as preparations by Iranian forces in Syria to fire missiles into Israel.

“The IDF is ready and prepared for a variety of scenarios and warns that any action against Israel will be answered with a fierce retaliation,” the military said. The IDF called up reservists from aerial defence, Home Front Command and intelligence units.