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Israel, Russia to discuss coordinating military forces around Syria

Xinhua, October 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli military announced on Thursday a high-ranking official will meet with his Russian counterpart next week in order to start coordinating the activity of Israeli and Russian military forces around Syria.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Deputy Chief of Staff, Yair Golan, will meet with his Russian counterpart Nikolai Bogdanovski this upcoming Tuesday at the Tel Aviv-based Israeli military headquarters, the IDF spokesperson unit said in a statement.

The talks will focus on coordinating activity of both forces in the "aerial, naval and electro-magnetic arenas," the IDF said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who departed on an urgent one-day visit to Moscow 10 days ago, said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to coordinate their moves around Syria, as Russia boosted its military deployment in the country.

Israel has carried out several air strikes in Syria, according to reports in the foreign press, in order to prevent the delivery of weapons from Iran, through Syria to Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime and Israel's staunch enemy.

Israel did not publicly claim responsibility for these attacks, but officials stated Israel would "countinue to defend the country's security interests," without interfering with the Syrian civil war.

Russia had recently boosted its military presence in Syria in a bid to save the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, amid the country's four and a half year civil war.

Putin announced the Russian activity in Syria is directed against the Islamic State (IS) group.

Russia entered its second day of air strikes in Syria on Thursday, with Russian airjets striking more than 12 positions of the Islamic State organization within 24 hours, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

The country deployed hundreds of troops and dozens of artillery units, personnel carriers, and aircrafts in the past week, mostly situated around the stronghold of Assad's forces in the northwestern Syrian region of Latakia, to the dismay of the international community.

The United States and its allies raised concerns that Russian actions aimed not only at IS, but rather at other rebel groups fighting Assad, some are helped by the western countries. Endit