Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday, and warned him that if Russia follows through on its plans to sell S-300 anti-aircraft missile batteries to Syria, "it could destabilize the region. Israel will not abide the transfer of chemical weapons from Syria to Hezbollah."
Netanyahu flew to Russia on Tuesday to try and dissuade Putin from pursuing the arms deal, which Damascus and Moscow signed in 2010. Russia inked a similar deal was Iran, but has yet to deliver the missiles to either of them.
Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, National Security Council chief Yaakov Amidror and Deputy Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin also attended the meeting.
Kochavi presented the Russian president, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov, and officials from the Russian Defense Ministry with a situation assessment regarding the Syrian civil war, which has been raging since March 2011, as well as with information detailing Iran and Hezbollah's involvement in the fighting.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that meeting was "warm and productive" adding that "a wide range of issues were discussed, including the arms deal and its ramifications."
Netanyahu invited Putin to visit Israel, saying that the ties between Israel and Russia "keep getting stronger over time. We discussed further advancing the economic, cultural, science and tourism between the two countries." The prime minister said, "A significant part of this bond can be attributed, of course, to the Jews who came to Israel from the Soviet Union, and the Russian people, who contributed so much to the Nazis' defeat."
Still, according to former Israeli Ambassador to Russia Zvi Magen, now with the Institute for National Security Studies, Netanyahu's visit was prompted less by the impending arms sale and more by the possibility of a Western offensive in Syria.
Russia is adamantly against any Western intervention in Syria and together with China, it has prevented several U.N. Security Council resolutions to that effect. Russia has sold arms to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and lent him crucial diplomatic support during a conflict that has killed more than 80,000 people.
Magen, who is a former Israeli Ambassador to Russia, explained that as the conflict in Syria escalated over the past two years, "Russia has gradually become a key player on the Syrian front, implementing a strategy that bars any outside intervention, which enables Assad to fight the rebels. Simultaneously, Russia has been pursuing alternatives that could end the conflict but would still ensure Syria standing in the Middle East, and allow it to maintain the radical Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis."
Russia also seeks to "use the Syrian leverage to promote its own interests in the global arena, especially vis-à-vis the West," Magen said.
Meanwhile, the Russian daily Kommersant quoted Putin as saying, "We have to avoid any steps that might further aggravate the situation in Syria. The only way to stop that from happening in to ensure the end of the conflict and pursue a diplomatic solution."
The report alleged that Netanyahu failed to convince Putin to rescind the missiles sales, saying, "President Putin's position still stands and one can say that the Syrians can count on getting the S-300 system. Netanyahu's visit will not change anything in that regard."
Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Israel had raised the issue of Russian weapons supplies to its ally Syria and that Moscow had defended the deliveries.
"The issue was raised. The Russian Federation presented its arguments, which are well known," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Peskov as saying.
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