T. Belman. I agree with Bibi. Israel must chart its own course with Russia. Israel was neutral on the Russian moves in the Ukraine and in backing Assad to the displeasure of the US. Bibi also kept Israel out of the war in Syria and limited itself to protecting her interests.
Prime Minister tells CNN Israel wants to avoid a situation in which its goals clash with those of Russia.
Netanyahu’s comments were made in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, which will air on Sunday and of which Reuters quoted excerpts on Saturday.
In the interview, Netanyahu did not join the United States and other NATO nations in criticizing Russia’s taking military action in Syria.
“We don’t want to go back to the days when, you know, Russia and Israel were in an adversarial position,” he said, adding, “I think we’ve changed the relationship. And it’s, on the whole, good.”
Russia is a backer of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who is also is backed by Iran, Israel’s ardent foe and supporter of Hezbollah. Netanyahu noted that Israel is concerned that Russian weapons being deployed in Syria could end up with Hezbollah.
“I went to Moscow to make it clear that we should avoid a clash between Russian forces and Israeli forces,” he was quoted as having told Zakaria.
“In Syria, I’ve defined my goals. They’re to protect the security of my people and my country. Russia has different goals. But they shouldn’t clash,” continued Netanyahu, adding Israel and Russia would talk soon about the situation.
Russia this past week conducted its first airstrikes in Syria. An Israeli militarysource told Arutz Sheva that Israel, too, had been notified in advance, via a mechanism reached between Jerusalem and Moscow during Netanyahu’srecent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked by Zakaria if Russia’s entry in the Syrian conflict would be destabilizing, Netanyahu said, “I don’t know. I think time will tell.”
Netanyahu signaled that Russian deployment would not deter Israel from continuing to take occasional military action in Syria.
“If anybody wants to use Syrian territory to transfer nuclear weapons to Hezbollah, we’ll take action,” “And we continue to do that.”
Netanyahu also referred to the Iranian nuclear deal in the CNN interview, hinting that he was prepared to move on from his criticism of it following his speech before the United Nations.
“I’m not going to rehash the deal,” he was quoted by Reuters as having said. “… Let’s look forward. Let’s keep Iran’s feet to the fire. Let’s make sure that they keep all their obligations under the nuclear deal.”
The comments appear to be in line with ones made by American officials who were quoted by Haaretz on Friday.
According to those officials, Netanyahu informed the administration that his UN speech would be his swansong on his public fight against the accord, and he would now move on to talking about what comes next and the ways in which the United States and Israel will jointly deal with Iran and its subversive activities in the region.
That interview was great. I watched it and recorded it for replaying. We Jews have a great man as Prime-minister. Bravo Netanyahu!
Putin must realize that at some point he will have to curb Iran and prevent it from getting the bomb. Iran has no love for Putin nor The Russians and vice versa, they’re just using one another. That would make Russia and Israel natural allies. Obviously the US nor Europe, or what is left of it, can be relied upon, AT ALL, on the contrary.
There is no reason to trust any of the Islamist groups in Syria, whether US-supported or otherwise. And there is no reason for Israel to commit suicide in order to save the legacy of Obama. Russia is the only country on this planet which has the guts to defeat Isis. If Assad survives or not is irrelevant for Israel. No successor of Assd will be more palatale anyway.
interesting and related events to consider:
these events can have varying interpretations but I beleive they are meaningful, intentional and indicative of future paradigms.
Should we assume that Putin will reciprocate when he is already fighting along hezbullah and supporting Iran to get the 100 billion Obama gave Iran?
Shouldn’t clash? sounds like BB is not sure and has no reciprocal understanding with Putin.
Whoa, why did he insert the word nuclear? Is he saying that the only transfer that he will take action on is Nuclear weapons? Did Putin make him back off other transfers? the past transfers to hezbullah were not nuclear, will attacking those transfers now cease.
BB is a man of rhetoric in place of action, so I am not comforted by this strange insertion of the word “nuclear” which appears to stipulate the sole condition to attack hezbullah transfers now.