Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Russia’s visiting vice premier that Israel will continue to act militarily in Syria to prevent the establishment of a permanent Iranian foothold in the country, irrespective of the transfer by Moscow to Damascus of the advanced S-300 air defense system. The Israeli leader held his highest-level meeting with a Russian official since a diplomatic crisis between the two nations erupted in September over the downing of a Russian reconnaissance plane in Syria. The Kremlin blames Jerusalem for the incident, in which 15 Russian servicemen were killed, that came in the immediate aftermath of an Israeli aerial strike on a weapons manufacturing facility in Latakia. By contrast, Israel contends that the indiscriminate firing of an anti-missile battery by Syrian troops caused the crash. Prime Minister Netanyahu repeatedly has vowed to inhibit Tehran from creating another forward operating base against Israel and to thwart attempts to transfer sophisticated weaponry to its Hizbullah proxy in Lebanon. Despite the tensions, Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to meet with Netanyahu in the near future. Notably, there have been no reports of Israeli strikes in Syria in nearly a month.
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