Israeli PM, Netanyahu headed to Russia for talks on Syria
News agencies/Ynetnews/Published: 9.16.15
Netanyahu to convey his concerns over advanced Russian weaponry in Syria; France to bomb Islamic State in Syria; Kerry places his 3rd phone call in 10 days to his Russain counterpart. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Russia next week for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Russia’s expanding military deployment in Syria, an Israeli official said on Wednesday.”The prime minister will present the threats to Israel emanating from the increased flow of advanced weaponry to the Syrian arena and from the transfer of lethal weaponry to Hezbollah and other terrorist groups,” the official said.
Meanwhile, France’s defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, says French fighter jets will start bombing Islamic State group targets in Syria in the coming weeks, despite growing doubts over whether the US-led air campaign against extremists in the region is working. Le Drian said on France-Inter radio Wednesday that the French strikes would go forward “as soon as we have well-identified targets.” “Today ISIS has progressed to such an extent that it threatens both the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian resistance in the Aleppo region, but also Lebanon, which is behind the Damascus-Homs axis , if ISIS happens to break this line,” noted Le Drian. Russia’s recent military buildup in Syria has perplexed the Obama administration and left it in a quandary as to how to respond, complicating Washington’s efforts to both combat Islamic State extremists and assist moderate rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Underscoring US uncertainty about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intentions, Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday placed his third phone call in 10 days to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, seeking clarity about Moscow’s moves, the State Department said. “Kerry made clear that Russia’s continued support for President Assad risks exacerbating and extending the conflict, and undermining our shared goal of fighting extremism if we do not also remain focused on finding a solution to the conflict in Syria via a genuine political transition,” the department said in a statement. Last week, President Barack Obama said Putin’s strategy is “doomed to fail” and the White House reinforced that message on Tuesday.
Netanyahu, Putin to discuss continued Israeli air force freedom of action over Syria
DEBKAfile Special Report September 16/15
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Wednesday, Sept. 16, that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would pay a “short working visit and hold talks with President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, Sept. 21.” The announcement from the Prime Minister’s Bureau in Jerusalem was somewhat more informative: “The Prime Minister will express his views on the threat to Israel as a result of the deliveries of modern weaponry to Syria due to the possibility that they could end up in the hands of Hizballah or other terrorist organizations.” If that is to be the sole topic of their talks, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources doubt the prime minister will accomplish anything much, outside of a polite exchange of views. Putin will not remove the Russian troops and advanced weaponry which giant Antonov-24 Condors have been landing in Syria since the last week of August.
These deliveries have been planned down to the last detail in coordination with Tehran – as Moscow’s rejoinder for US President Barack Obama’s cherished nuclear deal with Iran. Tehran has not only refrained from endorsing the accord, but has joined Moscow in a move to outmaneuver Washington in the Middle East by a major military buildup in Syria. Putin will no doubt parrot Obama in assuring Netanyahu of Russia’s abiding commitment to Israel’s security.
But he will not waver in his steps for strengthening Iran’s foothold in Syria, any more than Obama has. The enhancement of President Bashar Assad’s military capabilities by an injection of sophisticated weapons is part and parcel of Putin’s project, and a share of those arms will undoubtedly be allotted to Assad’s ally, Hizballah. Lacking most of all is a consensus on which terrorist organizations pose the paramount threat. For Obama, it is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – ISIS; for Netanyahu, ISIS and Hizballah are equally dangerous; whereas Putin lumps ISIS and other Syrian Islamist rebel groups in the same category, especially the Nusra Front, which has Russian Chechen recruits and therefore poses a direct threat to Moscow. With Washington and Moscow at odds over which terrorist organizations should be fought first, Netanyahu is unlikely to get a serious hearing from his hosts in Moscow.
For months now, Russia and Iran have been laying the groundwork for their intensified military collaboration in Syria. Last April, Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani visited Moscow to promote the scheme. Four months earlier, in Dec. 2014, the Kremlin’s Middle East expert Mikhail Bogdanov held talks in Beirut with Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. All this leaves Netanyahu with a narrow corridor for making headway in Moscow.According to our sources, he will press for the Israeli Air Force to continue to have a free hand in Syrian skies for dealing with threats. Coordination between the Israeli Air Force and the Russian Air Force command located at Jablah near the western Syrian port of Latakia, would need to be established to prevent inadvertent collisions between Russia and Israeli warplanes. This sort of coordination has been tacitly approved between Washington and Moscow to enable the US to continue to conduct air strikes against ISIS in Syria.
But the Israeli case is more complex in view of the multiplicity of its enemies: Israel requires a free hand to strike targets in Syria of its declared foes, Iran and Hizballah, when necessary to distance them from its borders. On this, Putin may well dig in his heels. Another issue which may come up in their talks in six days’ time is Israel’s Mediterranean gas field, in which the Russian leader has expressed an interest. Since the projected Israel-Turkish pipeline for exporting the gas to Europe will verge on the economic water zones of Lebanon and Syria, Russia is the only power realistically capable or providing it with military protection.