Israel and Russia will coordinate their military actions over Syria to avoid accidentally trading fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
“My objective was to prevent misunderstandings between IDF (Israel Defence Force) units and Russian forces,” Netanyahu told Israeli reporters, adding that he and Putin “agreed on a mechanism to prevent such misunderstandings.”
Emphasising the importance of the visit, Netanyahu took along with him the chief of Israel’s armed forces and the general in charge of Israeli military intelligence.
A rapid Russian build-up in Syria, which regional sources have said includes warplanes and anti-aircraft systems, worries Israel, whose jets have on occasion bombed the neighbouring Arab country to foil suspected handovers of advanced arms to Assad’s Lebanese guerrilla allies Hezbollah.
“I’m here because of the difficult security situation, which is becoming increasingly complex on our northern border,” Netanyahu told Putin in the Russian president’s residence of Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow.
He told Putin he was in Russia to prevent “confusion between your forces and our forces in the region.”
Putin, in reply, said Russia’s actions in the Middle East would always be “responsible.”
