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Netanyahu, Putin to meet after Syria friendly fire incident
JERUSALEM, Oct 7, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu said Sunday he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin to
discuss coordination in Syria after the accidental downing of a Russian plane
led to tensions.
Netanyahu said he had spoken with Putin and the two agreed “to meet soon
in order to continue the important inter-military security coordination”.
Speaking at the start of a cabinet meeting, 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 would be the first since the Russian plane was downed by
Syrian air defences, 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 incident 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 army with S-300 air defence systems and
jamming radars of nearby warplanes.
Those measures have led to concern in Israel that it will be forced to
limit its strikes against what it calls Iranian and Hezbollah targets in the
neighbouring country.
It has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against what it says are
Iranian military targets and advanced arms deliveries to Hezbollah.
Russia and Israel set up a hotline in 2015 to avoid accidental clashes in
Syria.
Both Iran and Hezbollah — enemies of Israel — are supporting Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in his country’s civil war alongside
Russia.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1519 hrs