MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : BIBI AGAIN WITH VLADIMIR – Israel’s Netanyahu to Meet Putin to Discuss Syria
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS MIDEAST – Sunday, 7 October, 2018 – 09:45 – Asharq Al-Awsat
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to address the conflict in Syria.Netanyahu said he had spoken with Putin and the two agreed “to meet soon in order to continue the important inter-military security coordination”.
He did not specify a date for their meeting. – Speaking at the start of a cabinet session, Netanyahu again pledged to stop “Iran from establishing a military presence in Syria and to thwart the transfer of lethal weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon”.The meeting will be the first between them since the accidental downing of a Russian plane led to tensions.The plane was downed by Syrian air defenses, which fired in response to an Israeli raid in the country.
Putin and Netanyahu have spoken at least three times by phone since the September 17 incident.
Fifteen Russians were killed in the downing that Moscow blamed on Israel, accusing its pilots of using the larger Russian plane as cover.Israel disputes the Russian findings and says its jets were back in Israeli airspace when the plane was downed.Russia announced new security measures to protect its military in Syria, including supplying the Syrian regime with S-300 air defense systems and jamming radars of nearby warplanes.
Israeli officials have said the new system could be defeated by Israel’s stealth fighters and possibly destroyed on the ground, and they have pledged to press on with efforts to prevent military entrenchment by Iran in Syria. But since the Russian plane was shot down, there have been no reports of Israeli air strikes in Syria. The apparent pause has raised speculation in the Israeli media that Israel was either holding back at Russia’s request or paused the attacks over concern they would fuel tensions with Moscow. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against Iranian military targets and advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah.Russia and Israel set up a hotline in 2015 to avoid accidental clashes in Syria.
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