Israel-U.S.-Russian trilat to be held in Jerusalem on June 24

Netanyahu first proposed the idea at the Kremlin in February during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that dealt primarily with Iran’s presence in Syria.

By HERB KEINON
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and US President Donald Trump (R) (photo credit: REUTERS)
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) and US President Donald Trump (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS)
A first of its kind trilateral meeting between the National Security advisers of Israel, the US and Russia will be taking place in Israel in 10 days, according to a schedule put out Thursday by the Foreign Ministry.
US National Security Adviser John Bolton and his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, are scheduled to be in Israel from June 24 to 26.
They will be joined in the meetings by Israel’s National Security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, for talks expected to focus on Iran’s presence in Syria. The US-sponsored economic workshop in Bahrain is scheduled to take place at the same time, June 25-26.
The White House statement earlier this month about the unprecedented trilateral meeting said that the three men will “discuss regional security issues.”
Netanyahu first proposed the idea at the Kremlin in February, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that dealt primarily with Iran’s presence in Syria.
“The greatest threat to stability and security in the region comes from Iran and its proxies,” Netanyahu said before that meeting. “We are determined to continue with our aggressive action against the efforts of Iran – which calls for our destruction – and against its attempt to entrench militarily in Syria.”
Netanyahu said at the time that the objective of removing Iranian troops from Syria is not Israel’s alone. He proposed setting up a team with others to promote the goal of removing all foreign forces from Syrian soil, and returning the situation regarding foreign troops to what it was before the start of the Syrian civil war. He said that a team has been established to deal with this matter in Israel’s National Security Council.