Putin to Netanyahu: We won't rein in Iran - David Rosenberg - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/234703
Reports suggest PM, Russian president failed to achieve understanding on Iran, with Putin telling Netanyahu he will not act against Tehran.
Reports from Russian media outlets suggest Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to bring the two leaders closer to an understanding on the Iranian threat and Russian backing for the Tehran regime.
Netanyahu met with Putin for more two hours last Wednesday in Sochi, during which time the Prime Minister detailed Iran's push for hegemony in the region, its efforts to destabilize the Middle East, and the need for Russia to take steps to rein in its ally.
"Iran continues to threaten Israel's existence, and it funds terror organizations and missile plans," Netanyahu told Putin. "Wherever ISIS disappeared, Iran has taken over. Iran is already on its way to taking control of Iraq, Yemen, and in many ways has already taken over Lebanon."
According to a report by the Pravda newspaper, however, Netanyahu's warnings may have fallen on deaf ears.
During the meeting, Putin reiterated his country's support for the Tehran regime.
"Iran is Russia's strategic ally in the Middle East," Putin told Netanyahu.
Witnesses present during part of the nearly two-and-a-half hour meeting say that following the Prime Minister's entreaties to the Russian leader, Putin sighed, telling Netanyahu his government would be unable to assist.
"Unfortunately, we cannot help you here."
According to the Prime Minister's Office, Netanyahu's meeting with Putin is just part "of a wider international effort led by Prime Minister Netanyahu and intended to impress upon the world how dangerous Iran's foothold in Syria is."
Netanyahu: We Will Not Allow Iranian 'Noose' to Tighten Around Israel -
Jerusalem cannot be expected to sit idly by as Iran entrenches itself in Syria and Lebanon and declares with Hezbollah that they are planning a two-front war against Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday.
"Iran is busy turning Syria into a base of military entrenchment and it wants to use Syria and Lebanon as war fronts [in] its declared goal to eradicate Israel," Netanyahu said before his meeting in Jerusalem with Guterres. "It is also building sites to produce precision- guided missiles toward that end in both Syria and in Lebanon. This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept."
During the meeting, Netanyahu said: "It is our right not to allow this noose to tighten around Israel."
Diplomatic sources said Israel sees Guterres's first visit here since taking office in January as a good opportunity to present its case before having to take action in Syria or Lebanon, well aware that any action it takes will lead for calls of condemnation in the UN Security Council.
During a day packed with meetings with the country's senior political and military officials, Guterres was shown intelligence information on Hezbollah's build-up in southern Lebanon.
Israel's leaders, from President Reuven Rivlin and Netanyahu down through Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and new Zionist Union head Avi Gabbay, bombarded Guterres with a litany of complaints about the organization he heads.
For his part, Guterres said Israel should expect impartiality from the UN secretary-general, and he will strive to be an "honest broker."
He stressed during the day, on a number of different occasions, that calling for the destruction of Israel is modern antisemitism.
But, he said during a meeting with Rivlin, "you also understand that I sometimes disagree with positions of the government of Israel or any other government, and that is absolutely normal in a society where many of your citizens have exactly the same expressions of opinion."
Netanyahu welcomed Guterres by saying that he has demonstrated a desire to turn a new page in relations between Israel and the UN, but then lashed into the organization's "absurd obsession with Israel," and its "flagrantly discriminatory tactics."
The UN mandate is to advance peace, security and international cooperation, but it "has failed when it comes to Israel to live up to its mandate," he said.
Netanyahu said UNESCO is mandated with preserving world heritage, but denies the Jewish people's 3,000- year connection to Jerusalem. And the UN is mandated to pursue peace, "but allows Palestinian hate speech to flourish in its institutions."
Also, he said, the institution is mandated to stand up for human rights, "but it allows in its various forms the worst human rights violators to take up the cudgel and to accuse Israel of violating human rights."
Netanyahu said the most pressing problem Israel faces now is Hezbollah and Syria.
Referring to Security Council Resolution 1701, which set the terms for the end of the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Netanyahu said the UN was mandated with preventing weapons shipments to Hezbollah, but that UNIFIL has not even reported one of the "tens of thousands of weapons smuggling into Lebanon for Hezbollah, contrary to 1701."
Guterres responded: "I will do everything in my capacity to make sure that UNIFIL fully meets its mandate."
UNIFIL's mandate is up for renewal next week, and both Israel and the US are pressing for its mandate to be strengthened in order to more effectively combat or at least report on Hezbollah's weapons build-up.
France, on the other hand, has raised its voice against changing the mandate.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley took UNIFIL Irish commander Maj.-Gen. Michael Beary to task on Friday.
"Gen. Beary says there are no Hezbollah weapons," she said. "That's an embarrassing lack of understanding on what's going on around him."
In addition to meeting Rivlin and Netanyahu, Guterres also met with Liberman, and the Zionist Union delegation that included Gabbay, opposition leader Isaac Herzog and MK Tzipi Livni.
He also met with head of Military Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. Herzl Halevi, and Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the coordinator of government activities in the territories.
In addition, Guterres met the families of the Israelis held by Hamas in Gaza, and was urged throughout the day to use his influence to bring about their release. Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon called the meeting "emotional."
Guterres is scheduled to go to Gaza on Wednesday, but will not be meeting any Hamas representatives there.
On Tuesday he will go to Ramallah for meetings with Palestinian Authority leaders.
Soon after arriving Sunday evening, Guterres met with US negotiator Jason Greenblatt and discussed the diplomatic process as will as the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Guterres began the day Monday with a visit to Yad Vashem, which he said serves as a reminder "that we need to be in the first line of fighting against antisemitism and also fighting against all other forms of bigotry, be it racism, xenophobia or even anti-Muslim hatred, and to promote understanding and to promote dialogue."
After his visit to Yad Vashem, Guterres - a former Portuguese prime minister - planted an olive tree in the KKL-JNF Grove of Nations in the Jerusalem forest.
Guterres's maternal family name is Oliveira, which means "olive tree" in Portuguese. He said during the ceremony that when he was born, his grandfather planted an olive tree in his honor. "That tree remains standing, meaning we have many things in common," he said.
In the late afternoon, Guterres joined Netanyahu at the Israel Museum to see an exhibition on Israeli innovation.
Israel takes stock of Putin's pull with Iran - Marianna Belenkaya - http://www.al-monitor.com
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Putin's Black Sea residence in Sochi. It was their sixth meeting over the last two years, since Russia's air force began its military operation in Syria. Netanyahu came to express his concern over the intentions of Iran and its allied Shiite militant movement, Hezbollah, to establish a permanent presence in an area of Syria currently being surrendered by the Islamic State (IS).
The Israelis are preoccupied with who is going to play the key role in the postwar future of Syria.
Netanyahu's visit Aug. 23 came within three days of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's speech before diplomats in Damascus, where he put Russia on par with Iran and Hezbollah, thanking them for their support in the fight against terrorism and for Syria's salvation.
The Syrian army and Hezbollah are conducting a successful military operation against IS along the Lebanon-Syria border. There are positive developments on other fronts as well. Thus, against this backdrop, who will be able to point Iran and its allies to the door, and how? Could Putin be useful to Netanyahu to this effect? The answer is no.
"Even if he wanted to, [Putin's] help could be nothing but psychotherapeutic, that is, he could only listen to his Israeli counterpart, but would hardly ever be able to limit Iran's influence in the region. Yet it should have been flattering for Putin to be consulted on such serious geopolitical matters, and in this respect the meeting was mutually beneficial," Andrey Kolesnikov, special correspondent of the Russian Kommersant newspaper and a member of the Kremlin's press pool for 20 years, wrote in describing the Sochi meeting.
Speaking before journalists, the Russian president avoided comments on Netanyahu's complaints about Iran, confining himself to vague generalities of being pleased with "the effective mechanism of cooperation established between [Russia and Israel], including the relationship between the leaders." It was a clear message to Tehran that Moscow hadn't changed its position. Several hours later, this position was confirmed by Vasily Nebenzya, Russia's permanent representative to the UN, who was quoted by Interfax as saying: "We know the position of Israel on Iran, but we believe that Iran is playing a very constructive role in Syria."
Moscow spent several years convincing the international community to acknowledge Iran as a rightful member of the talks on Syria. Though Tehran is a serious competitor of Moscow in Syria militarily - and in the near future economically and politically - the reality is that without Iran, Syria's situation will hardly be stabilized. That is well understood in Moscow.
There is one more point. The very possibility of a dialogue between Moscow and Tehran is getting on Washington's nerves, which gives additional weight to Russia's position in the Syria talks. Besides, the degree of Russia's influence on Iran - if it exists - is irrelevant in this regard. What matters is Russia's appearance of influence, the semblance of power.
That said, Moscow is genuinely taking into consideration Israel's position on regional security. According to Israeli media, Russian Ambassador to Israel Alexander Shane said that after the conflict is settled, pro-Iranian or any other foreign troops should not stay in Syria. The only hitch is that Russia is also a foreign power, and its policy in Syria is mapped out not in the Foreign Ministry, but in the presidential administration and the Defense Ministry. However, no representative of the military was present at the Putin-Netanyahu talks. On the Israeli side, Netanyahu was accompanied by Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, who reportedly provided the Russian president with "sensitive, credible and very disturbing detailed intelligence" on Iran's military activity in Syria - all to convince Moscow that Tehran poses a threat.
Clearly, Israel and the United States want a guarantee there will be no Iranian military bases in Syria, while Iran wants to ensure there will be no American ones. They are unlikely to agree that the only foreign military presence there should be Russian. Moscow is not willing to give up its bases in Tartus and Khmeimim. The Kremlin is now listening to all parties, but is making no promises to anyone.
That means Israel, in the meantime, will have to be satisfied with what it already has - which isn't insubstantial. Moscow is mostly blind to Israel's operations against Hezbollah in Syria, but is vigilant when it comes to preventing any large-scale confrontations of Israeli forces with the Syrian army. One of the most dangerous situations occurred in March, when a week after Netanyahu's Moscow visit the Israeli air force hit the facilities of the Syrian army near Palmyra, allegedly to target a Hezbollah weapons convoy. Syrian air defense forces struck back. Israeli Ambassador to Russia Gary Koren was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry, where he was told Moscow found "unacceptable" any military clashes between Israel and the Syrian army. Yet the Russians said not a single word about Hezbollah.
Nevertheless, staying between Israel and Iran gives Russia certain space for maneuver. Hezbollah regiments and Iraqi Shiite formations may go home (to Lebanon and Iraq, respectively) on several conditions. First and foremost is Syria's stabilization and guarantees that Iran's interests will be looked after there. Moreover, this departure cannot look like a triumph of Israel and the United States. Russia could become a go-between on this issue, but in any case, there should be an agreement with Iran.
It is noteworthy that on the day Netanyahu was meeting with Putin, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the center in Amman, Jordan, that monitors Syria's southern de-escalation zone had finally started its work. Agreements on monitoring were reached as early as July, and have been a serious worry to Israel. For Russia, however, the de-escalation zones are matters of special pride. Moscow is indeed so proud of negotiating the achievement that at an Aug. 23 meeting with Lebanese Defense Minister Yacoub Sarraf, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared that establishment of the four zones had brought Syria's civil war to an end.
There is, however, no clear-cut agreement on the zone in the Idlib region.
The meeting between Shoigu and Sarraf took place on the same day as the talks between Putin and Netanyahu. This coincidence is rather symbolic - the strategy of Moscow in Syria today resembles a multiple-board chess game.
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