Vlad and Bibi: Russia, Israel Agree to Exchange Intel and Avoid Clashes in Syria

21st Century Wire says…

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Moscow yesterday and there’s an indication that both parties have agreed on a plan to avoid and “misunderstandings”, or military clashes in Syria.

Mainstream media headlines have been relatively bland so far on this news, even though it is potentially explosive in geopolitical terms. Pentagon media outlet CNN’s headline, “Netanyahu visits Putin amid concerns about Russian involvement in Syria” shows Washington’s public line on this story, but does not reveal real concerns currently going on under the surface.

Regarding military affairs, the main issue here is clear: Israel fears that a Russian air presence reduce their own ability to carry out IDF air strikes on what they claim are ‘Iranian arms transfers’ to Lebanese militia Hezbollah via Syria, even though Hezbollah is currently assisting the Syrian Arab Army (government forces) in flushing out western-backed foreign terrorist groups like al Nusra Front and ISIS. This Israeli policy could be at odds with Moscow’s interests in the region and the potential for a three way fracture between US, Russia and Israel over this new arrangement is high.

TRICKY: Putin and Netanyahu will soon be walking on egg shells over Syria.

Certainly, Syria wasn’t the only item on the agenda during their meeting in Moscow. Additional leverage might be required to make this deal stick. For some time, Israel has been keen to develop natural gas reserves in the Leviathan Gas Field deposit located offshore, but a lack of foreign investment and specialty engineering power – and security guarantees – has kept this project on the back burning for sometime. An alliance with Moscow could help Tel Aviv solve all of those problems. Could this deal be looming steadily in the background? As 21WIRE’s weekly SUNDAY WIRE SHOW explained with its guest F.William Engdahl this week, such a deal could potentially shuffled almost every alliance in the region. If it is, it would radically alter the current international order which is based completely on a Washington-Tel Aviv centered axis.

It goes without saying that, regarding Syria and the Middle Eastern region, this is a very complex array of players and potential outcomes, and we’ll reserve judgment over any potential developments until some real binding diplomatic agreements are reached between traditional warring factions, namely Israel and Palestine, as well as newer, albeit unofficial warring parties – the US and Syria.

Meanwhile, surface negotiations continue…

RT.com

Russia’s president and Israeli’s PM have agreed to “establish a channel for information exchange” with regard to the current situation in war-torn Syria, a Kremlin spokesman said on Tuesday, commenting on the Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow.

The two leaders discussed the need for a “more honest information exchange and coordination between Russia and Israel” in their actions in Syria, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said, adding that the agreement had been prompted by the worsening situation there.

“Based on the partnership relations between Russia and Israel it has been considered appropriate to establish channels of informational exchange on such a sensitive issue,” Peskov told journalists, adding that this coordination has become necessary because of the difficult situation in the region, and has nothing to do with Russian military advisers in Syria.

#Putin to #Netanyahu: Syrian army too busy saving country to threaten Israel http://t.co/Vze2Yx53dL pic.twitter.com/PGYt9mvZPj

— RT (@RT_com) September 21, 2015

The Kremlin’s comments came after Benjamin Netanyahu said that his meeting with Putin on Monday was intended to “prevent misunderstandings between IDF (Israel Defense Forces) units and Russian forces” in Syria. Briefing Israeli reporters after the talks, Netanyahu said that they had “agreed on a mechanism” to ensure that such “misunderstandings” do not happen, without elaborating further.

Following the statements, some anonymous sources told the Israeli press that the goal of such coordination was to avoid situations in Syria in which the Russian and Israeli military could find themselves accidentally trading fire. The coordination will apply to “air, naval and electromagnetic fields,” RIA Novosti reported citing a source in Israeli military…

Read Full Article at RT.com

READ MORE SYRIA NEWS AT: 21st Century Wire Syria Files

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