Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday morning told reporters prior to leaving for Moscow: “Of course, I will go into details with President Putin as we do in order to ensure that the Russian military and the IDF coordinate in such a manner so as to prevent friction and clashes between us.”
“This has succeeded up until now and it is important that it also succeed in the future,” the PM stressed. “This is the main goal for which I am traveling to Moscow.”
Netanyahu was responding to a question regarding that one time the IDF communication with the Russians in Syria was not so successful, resulting in Syrian air defense downing an Ilyushin.
“It is not correct that this is my first meeting with him since the Ilyushin plane was downed by Syrian forces,” Netanyahu insisted. “I met with him in Paris and we agreed that we would meet again, and we are doing just that. Since then, of course, we have spoken by telephone several times including a few days ago.”
Downed Russian planes aside, Netanyahu said the primary reason for his talks with President Putin in Moscow is, as always, Iran.
“The conversation will certainly deal with several issues, but from our point-of-view, the focus of the talks will be preventing Iran from entrenching in Syria, the entrenchment of a country which explicitly says that its goal is to wipe us out,” Netanyahu said, boasting, “You know that when I say we are acting against this, these are no empty words.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu is accompanied by Minister Zeev Elkin, National Security Council Director Meir Ben-Shabbat and GOC Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Tamir Heiman. And Sara.