Netanyahu, Putin talk Syria, Trump's 'Deal of the Century' in Kremlin

“This visit symbolizes our ties getting even closer,” the prime minister said.

By LAHAV HARKOV
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, January 30, 2020 (photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin, January 30, 2020
(photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
MOSCOW – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the current situation in Syria and US President Donald Trump’s Mideast peace plan at a meeting in the Kremlin on Thursday.
Netanyahu discussed ways to achieve Israel’s goal of gradually eliminating an Iranian presence in Syria, a senior source in his delegation said. The matter also came up in his meeting with Trump on Monday.
“There are new details all the time which require constant coordination,” the course said. “We have a constant goal to avoid friction between our armies.”
The discussions were not only about military matters, but about what Syria will look like in the future, including in matters like infrastructure.
Netanyahu also presented Putin with Trump’s plan for Israel and the Palestinians, giving him a copy of the plan’s map.
The senior source said Putin asked “in-depth questions” about how the plan would work.
At the meeting’s opening, Putin said he and Netanyahu would “discuss bilateral subjects. There are developments in economic and other areas.”
Netanyahu said “relations between Russia and Israel are the strongest they have ever been.”
The two also discussed Putin’s participation in the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem last week, as well as the dedication of a monument in honor of the victims of the WWII Leningrad siege. Putin praised the monument, and Netanyahu said that the Russian president’s address at Yad Vashem was moving.