Henry Srebrnik, [Charlottetown, PEI] Guardian
The war in Syria, nuclear proliferation, trade, and the Israeli-Palestinian issue were on the agenda during a Nov. 9-11 three day tour of the Middle East by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
In Israel, he met with President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and opposition leader Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union, among others. In the Palestinian territories, he was greeted by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Medvedev told Netanyahu that terrorism threatens Israel in a “very unique way,” but Russia also suffers from it. “This is why there is a need to fight terror together,” he stated.
In turn, Netanyahu described Russia and Israel as partners in combating radical Islamist terror and stressed that Russia and Israel, along with many other countries share the goal of eliminating the Islamic State.
Netanyahu and Medvedev discussed Iran and the 2015 deal that six world powers, including Russia and the United States, struck with Tehran to limit its nuclear capacity.
“We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. “Iran has espoused the destruction of Israel and supports terrorism on five continents.”
Iran, he added, must not be allowed to establish “Shi’ite militias, which it is organizing, and of course the arming of Hezbollah with dangerous weapons aimed at us.” One U.S. estimates places the Lebanese group’s arsenal at more than 100,000 missiles and rockets.
Medvedev also reaffirmed Russia’s position on Israel’s legitimacy. He told Israeli media that “Our country has never denied the rights of Israel or the Jewish people to Jerusalem, the Temple Mount or the Western Wall.”
Medvedev then visited Abbas in Ramallah on the West Bank, declaring that Russia consistently supports the implementation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.
Abbas said that Russia “must play an effective and permanent role in any events related to the peace process.”
Medvedev responded that Moscow’s September invitation to host direct talks between Palestinian and Israeli leaders was still on the table. “Mediation cannot replace direct talks between the parties, which is the best thing.”
He expressed hope that the new U.S. administration would participate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
“Our recognition of the state of Israel cannot be for free,” Abbas was quoted as telling Medvedev. “As such, it is necessary for Israel to recognize the state of Palestine.”
The backdrop to all this, of course, is Moscow’s deeply expanded involvement in the Syrian civil war. Vladimir Putin wants more than anything else to reassert Russia’s role as a high-stakes player in the international system.
Netanyahu might not have been happy to see Russia get so involved in the Syrian equation, but he knows that the physical presence of Russian forces in Syria may help contain threats from Iranian proxies like Hezbollah, as well as from Islamist terrorists.
In the past year, Netanyahu and Putin have met four times, and Moscow and Jerusalem have agreed to coordinate their actions in Syria as well as share intelligence.
Last June, Israel’s Ambassador to Russia Zvi Heifetz told Russian media that his country supported Russia’s war on terror in Syria.
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