Baladi News - Journals
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told Russia's vice premier in talks on Tuesday that Israel must continue to hit hostile targets in neighbouring Syria, despite Moscow's decision to equip Damascus with advanced air defence missiles, the Mail Online wrote.
Netanyahu said at a press conference that he told Maxim Akimov in talks in Jerusalem that Israel would continue to fight what it says are Iranian attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and channel advanced weaponry to its Lebanese ally, Hezbollah, the journal added.
Despite the delivery of the S-300 air defence systems to the Syrian military, Israel was committed as a matter of self-defence to continue its "legitimate activity in Syria against Iran and its proxies, which state their intention to destroy us", the Mail online quoted Netanyahu as saying.
It was his first publicised meeting with a senior Russian official since the accidental Syrian downing of a Russian plane during an Israeli air strike in Syria, an incident that raised tensions between Israel and Russia.
Fifteen Russians were killed in the September 17 incident that Moscow blamed on Israel, accusing its pilots of using the larger Russian plane as cover.
Israel disputes the Russian findings and says its jets were back in Israeli airspace when the plane was downed.
In response, Moscow announced new measures to protect its military in Syria, including equipping Damascus with S-300 air defence systems.
Source: Mail Online