Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed grave concerns regarding Iran’s growing role in Syria, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the resort city of Sochi on Wednesday.
The Islamic Republic poses an existential threat to the Jewish state, Netanyahu warned, saying that “we cannot forget for a single minute that Iran threatens every day to annihilate Israel. It arms terrorist organizations, it sponsors and initiates terror.”
While he said that defeating the Islamic State is a "very important thing,” Tehran is increasing its influence and “stepping in” on the ground as the Islamist terrorist organization is pushed back.
"Iran is already well on its way to controlling Iraq, Yemen and to a large extent is already in practice in control of Lebanon,” he said.
Russia has worked closely with both Iran and Hezbollah in shoring up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and has argued that its influence in Syria has prevented them from launching aggressive action against Israel from that country.
Speaking with reporters prior to the meeting, former Israeli National Security Council adviser Yaakov Amidror said that Prime Minister’s goal for the meeting was to apprise his Russian counterpart of Jerusalem’s red-lines and its plans should they be crossed.
“Israel is not coordinating with the Russians, but it’s very important for Israel that the Russians understand where Israel stands,” the Jerusalem Post quoted Amidror as saying. As such, should Israel need to take action “the Russians will not be surprised.”
“It should be well understood all over, mainly in Moscow, that Israel will do whatever is needed not to let the Iranians build these bases, and not to let Hezbollah get these weapons systems,” he explained, referring to Israeli concerns regarding the Lebanese terror group acquiring “game changing” weapons.
“These are the two main concerns of Israel and they should be very clear in this meeting.”
Over the past half a decade Israeli air forces have undertaken dozens of attacks against convoys bringing advanced weapons to terror groups, according to Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, who until earlier this month was the commander of the Israeli Air Force.
“An action could be an isolated thing, small and pinpointed, or it could be an intense week involving a great many elements. Happily, this goes on under the radar,” he said.
Following the meeting, Netanyahu issued a statement saying that he had made Israel's position clear to Putin "and the fact that this is unacceptable to us. I can say about previous meetings with President Putin that any such conversation served the security of Israel and Israeli interests and I believe Russia's interests as well. Based on today's conversation today, I think I can say the same things vis-à-vis Russia.
