Moscow has been stepping up its Syria mediation role, especially as a top Russian delegation tasked with handling Syria developments chatted with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Talks focused on boosting cooperation to dodge conflict.
A Turkish army delegation has also set course to Moscow Thursday, with an agenda concerning Idlib, north Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, for his part, met with his Iraqi counterpart Mohammad Ali Al-Hakeem and discussed Syria.
Netanyahu held a meeting Tuesday with Russian Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin in Jerusalem. The sides discussed the situation in Syria, Iran’s activity in the conflict-torn state and security coordination mechanism between Israeli and Russian military.
“Among the issues discussed were Iran and the situation in Syria, and strengthening the security coordination mechanism between the militaries in order to prevent friction. The Russian representatives reiterated Russia’s commitment to the maintenance of Israel’s national security”, Netanyahu’s press service said in a statement published on Twitter.
Moscow-Tel Aviv relations were put to test following the fatal crash of the Russian IL-20 plane in September 2018 that the Russian Defense Ministry holds the Israeli Air Force responsible for.
Since that time, Russia and Israel have repeatedly discussed on different levels the operation of the bilateral communications channel between the Russian Hmeimim airbase in Syria and the Israeli Air Force to prevent incidents.
The visit by Vershinin and Lavrentyev came days after a high-level Russian military delegation arrived in Israel and held meetings in which they discussed the overall situation in Syria, especially the buildup of Iran troops, as well as improving the Russian-Israeli communication channel aimed at preventing friction between the two armies in Syrian airspace.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Turkish Ministry of Defense has been sent to Moscow for talks with the Russian military on the deteriorating situation in Idlib.
Russian sources did not elaborate on the talks being held, but well-informed diplomats tied the visit to the agreement struck between President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on coordinating military operations to resolve the situation in Idlib.
The northern province has recently been overrun by extremist Syrian opposition factions, whom Turkey is backing in a buffer zone arrangement. However, Turkey failed to remove extremists from the area, which was a provision within the Putin-Erdogan deal, calling for a possible military campaign to regain control of the violence-ridden area.
Moscow has repeatedly expressed to the Turkish side, in recent weeks, its concern about the security situation in the province of Idlib.
