Meeting with Russian
President Putin will be held later.
TEL AVIV, December 9.
/TASS/. Israeli and Russian experts may gather for another meeting to discuss coordination
on Syria in the coming days in Moscow, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu told a government meeting on Sunday.
"I talked to
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday. We agreed that the delegations of
Russian and Israeli armies on coordination on Syria will meet as soon as
possible. I hope this will be in the coming days, most likely in Moscow. And
our meeting with President Putin will be held later," Netanyahu said,
according to his press service.
Putin and Netanyahu
held a phone conversation on Saturday at the initiative of the Israeli side,
the Kremlin press service said. The sides reached an agreement to "work on
the next personal meeting of the two countries’ leaders."
"This [phone
conversation] was a follow-up to the talks in Paris, which were very crucial
for ensuring the continuing cooperation, which the Russian Army and the Israeli
Defense Forces have maintained for several years," Netanyahu said on
Sunday.
The two leaders had a
brief conversation in Paris on November 11 on the sidelines of the events
marking the 100th anniversary of the World War I Armistice.
Netanyahu said he
told the Russian leader on Saturday that the Jewish state would continue its
policy to prevent the creation of Iran’s military bases in Syria and go on with
its steps against the handover of high-precision weapons to Lebanon’s Hezbollah
movement and its tunnels crossing into Israel.
On Tuesday, Israel’s
Defense Forces launched Operation Northern Shield to expose and destroy
tunnels, built by the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, crossing into
Israel.
On September 17,
Russia’s Il-20 aircraft was accidently downed by Syrian air defenses over the
Mediterranean Sea when it was returning to the Hmeymim airbase. Russian top
brass said a missile from Syria’s S-200 system downed the aircraft when it
targeted four Israeli F-16 fighter jets, which attacked facilities in Latakia.
All 15 Russian crew members were killed in the tragedy. The Israeli Air Force
and those who made the decision to use the Il-20 aircraft as cover are solely
to blame for its crash, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor
Konashenkov said.
Source: ITAR-TASS
09-12-2018
