Netanyahu to Meet Putin to Discuss Iran

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, has announced that he will travel to Moscow on February 21 to meet with Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, to discuss Iran. Netanyahu made this announcement on Tuesday, February 5, during a joint press conference with Alexander Van der Bellen, the President of Austria, who is visiting Israel. According to AFP, the Israeli Prime Minister stated, "Following the conversation I had a few months ago with President Putin in Paris and subsequent consultations, I will travel to Russia again on February 21." He emphasized that continuing Israel's actions "to prevent the military establishment of the Iranian regime in Syria is very important. We are preventing this advance in various areas, and we must continue these actions to prevent the Iranian regime from opening another front against us in the Syrian Golan Heights. This is the focus of my discussions with President Putin." Alexander Lavrentiev, the special envoy of the Russian President, and Sergey Vershinin, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, met with Netanyahu on February 9 to discuss "Iran and the situation in Syria." Since the beginning of Russia's involvement in Syria in September 2015, the Israeli Prime Minister has made several trips and conducted ongoing phone negotiations with Putin to coordinate the two countries' militaries during Israeli operations in Syria. According to some reports in Israeli media, for the past six months, since an Israeli air operation against "Iranian targets" in Latakia, which resulted in the downing of a Russian military aircraft and the death of 15 pilots and crew members, Moscow has not definitively responded to Netanyahu's request to visit Russia. The meeting between Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin in Paris four months ago was brief and took place on the sidelines of a leaders' summit marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. After a pause in Israeli bombings in Syria following the downing of the Russian aircraft and especially after Russia provided S-300 air defense systems to Syria, Israel has resumed its attacks in recent weeks. At the end of January, the Israeli army announced that it had targeted the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards in Syria. Just hours before the Israeli Prime Minister announced his trip to Russia, Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, stated that if Israeli attacks on Syria continue, "the planned deterrent measures and a decisive and proportional response that serves as a lesson" will be activated. According to ISNA, Shamkhani described Israel's actions in Syria as "against the army and a violation of all Syrian territory and against the resistance forces" and stated that the continuation of this situation is "unacceptable." What the Islamic Republic refers to as "resistance forces" includes groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, which are labeled as "terrorist" by countries like Israel and the United States, or other militia groups that the West has repeatedly called for their withdrawal from Syria. The nature of the "deterrent measures" that Iran can take against Israel is not clear in Shamkhani's statements. Sergey Ryabkov, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia, stated in an interview with CNN on January 25 that Russia and Iran are not allies but only cooperate in Syria. He emphasized that Israel's security is a priority for Russia. Ryabkov's remarks appeared to be an implicit response to the question of why the Russian S-300 system is not activated against Israeli fighter jets, a matter that Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, the head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of Iran's Parliament, had mentioned after his recent trip to Syria. The alliance between Iran and Syria has held strategic importance for Tehran and Damascus since the establishment of the Islamic Republic 40 years ago during Hafez al-Assad's rule; this alliance has strengthened during Bashar al-Assad's 19-year rule and the eight-year civil war in Syria.