Russian-Israel relations and the Middle East

i think this thread belongs to middle east section

Putin, Netanyahu to discuss Middle East situation — Kremlin

Netanyahu’s office announced on Thursday the prime minister’s plans to visit Moscow next week to discuss with Putin "the deployment of Russian forces in Syria"

SOCHI, September 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the situation in the Middle East next week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said on Friday.

"This will be a businesslike sincere conversation of the two leaders," he told TASS.

Ushakov said Putin and Netanyahu "meet quite often and have telephone conversations."

Netanyahu’s office announced on Thursday the prime minister’s plans to visit Moscow next week to discuss with Putin "the deployment of Russian forces in Syria."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists earlier on Friday that Russia will consider Syria’s request to send troops if Damascus asks for it, but it is hard to talk about hypothetically.

Peskov also said that Turkish and Palestinian leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Mahmoud Abbas could visit Moscow next week.

Russia, Israel agree coordination of joint actions regarding Syria

Certain agreements at the meeting of Putin and Netanyahu were achieved, Kremlin spokesman says

MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. Russia and Israel have discussed the coordination of joint actions regarding Syria, Russian presidential spokesman has told reporters.

"As far as channels of information exchanges and coordination of likely actions are concerned, this theme was discussed. Certain agreements at the meeting with Netanyahu were achieved," he stated.

As he dwelt on the theme of Israeli media reports to the effect the meeting for the coordination of joint actions in Syria at the defense minister level might take place on October 5, he remarked that "the group’s meeting is a theme that concerns the Defence Ministry and all questions regarding the date and the very instance of such a meeting should be addressed there."

Earlier, the Jerusalem Post said that Israel and Russia will set up a joint work group for coordinating actions regarding Syria.

"The IDF and Russian military will set up a joint working group to coordinate their Syria-related activities in the aerial, naval, and electromagnetic arenas," the daily quoted a source on Monday.

The chief of the Israeli army’s General Staff, Gadi Eisenkot, met with his Russian counterpart Valery Gerasimov in Moscow on Monday. Also, Eisenkot was present at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

According to the Jerusalem Post "afterward, the two sides agreed to set up a joint working group led by the deputy chiefs of staff from each country; the first meeting will occur in two weeks, and the location will be decided in the coming days."

After the talks Netanyahu told Israeli media in a telephone interview that Israel and Russia had agreed to establish a coordination mechanism to prevent ‘misunderstandings, clashes’ between their forces in Syria.

Israel understands Russia’s actions in Syria — ambassador

Israeli Ambassador to Russia Zvi Heifetz noted the importance of preventing "the possibility that Iran will sit on the Golan Heights"

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Israel understands Russia’s actions in Syria, Israeli Ambassador to Russia Zvi Heifetz has said. According to him, Russia has made a substantial contribution to the ceasefire agreement in this country.

"We understand Russia’s actions in Syria. However, it is very important for us to eventually prevent the possibility that Iran will sit on the Golan Heights, to prevent the possibility of Iran’s aggression from Syrian territory and to prevent the supplies of weapons to Iran through Syria," he said on Tuesday at a meeting with Federation Council speaker Valentina Matviyenko.

The diplomat also commended Russia’s contribution to the ceasefire agreement in Syria. "This is a big contribution, and this should be appreciated," he said.


More:
http://tass.ru/en/world/859951

Russia will return to Israel tank that Syrian troops captured in 1980

"Israel at the end of the week received a notice that the Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to the request by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the return of the tank, which was handed over to the Syrians of the Russian army, and on display today at the Museum of Armored Forces," - said in a press statement Netanyahu service.

is this just a matter of "moral satisfaction" for Israel??

Lavrov favors Russia-Israel ties

Russia is ready to use its good relations with the Palestinians and the Israelis to end the stalemate in the Middle East settlement, says Lavrov

MOSCOW, June 9 /TASS/. Russia’s relations with Israel are obtaining a stable positive quality, and the uncompromising struggle against terrorism contributes to the two countries’ rapprochement, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

He said that this week’s visit to Moscow of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had shown that the relations between Russia and Israel were obtaining a stable new positive quality.

"In addition to mutually deep affection of our peoples for each other and apart from mutually-beneficial interaction; the presence of economic and investment projects, a very close vision of the region’s problems and the realization, above all, of the need to wage uncompromising struggle against terrorism without any double standards makes our relations even closer," Lavrov stressed.

"We are convinced that the Palestinian-Israeli settlement and the Arab-Israeli conflict in a broader sense would certainly help preventing young people in Arab countries to fall an easy prey to recruiters from the terrorist international," the Russian foreign minister stressed.

He added that Russia was ready to use its good relations with the Palestinians and the Israelis to end the stalemate in the Middle East settlement but it will do that exclusively within the framework of the "quartet" of Middle East peace brokers.

"Russia has trustful and very good relations with the Palestinians and the Israelis. We are ready to be maximum active in using this comparative advantage," Lavrov said.

"As for who is and can be the main broker in the Palestinian-Israeli settlement, the ‘quartet’ comprising Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations," the Russian foreign minister said.

"Russia has trustful and very good relations with the Palestinians and the Israelis. We are ready to be maximum active in using this comparative advantage," Lavrov said.

He added that Moscow would promote close interaction between the "quartet" and the League of Arab States (LAS), the author of the Arab peace initiative, which is extremely important for joint efforts.


More:
http://tass.ru/en/politics/881132

Russian MP says Moscow may push antiterrorist war in Middle East to end

A Russian lawmaker says after the US decision to suspend contacts on Syria, Russia can take the issue into own hands and push the antiterrorist war to an end

MOSCOW, October 4. /TASS/. Russia may push the antiterrorist war in the Middle East through to an end after the latest informational provocations and official statements from the U.S., First Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, Ivan Melnikov told TASS on Monday.

"After the recent informational provocations and official statements from the U.S. we can untie our own hands and push the antiterrorist war in the Middle East through to an end," said Melnikov, who is one of the top decision-makers in the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). He voiced the confidence this would meet the interests of Russia, Europe and the rationally thinking Americans in an equal measure.

"Otherwise this was spread much broader than today," he said.

Melnikov recalled that the military operation of the Russian Aerospace Force against the terrorist organization had been very efficacious.

"We suspended it and took up the peace process quite conscientiously, as we expected mutual understanding with the so-called allies in struggle with terrorism," he said.

"Yet time has shown the U.S. is playing a double game as regards Russia," Melnikov said. "To suit its interest, the U.S. supports directly or indirectly the forces that seed destruction, bloodshed and chaos. It wants to protect from destruction the big numbers of terrorists and keep them up."

All of this has become very apparent now, he said.

Earlier on Monday, the chief of the U.S. Department of State press service, John Kirby, said the U.S. was suspending the use of bilateral channels with Russia that had been established to help serve the ceasefire in Syria.

He also said the U.S. was revoking the personnel that was supposed to take up in the setting-up of a join executive center.


More:
http://tass.com/politics/903958?_ga=1.123378507.1337049799.1447427261

This is a CIA old report from 80s about USSR's goals in Middle East and its relations with various states.
Although its from a foreign perspective it is interesting to compare the background of USSR/Russia relations with M.East states from the past to present.

https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0000499549.pdf

Russian policy defines 3 areas

1. Middle East the non-arab countries of Iran and Turkey
2. Near East the countries of Levant, Iraq, Egypt and Arabian Peninsula and
3. North Afircan countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya

Soviet Policy goals were:
1. Blocking any US-sponsored Arab-Israeli peace settlement that leaves Moscow out and optimally, regaining a voice in the peace process
2. Unifying the Arabs into a pro-Soviet front ending the isolation of USSR's allied states of Syria, S.Yemen and Libya
3. Stemming the drift of Algeria and Iraq towards on lesser dependence with Soviet Union and to closer ties with the US
4. Expanding influence in Egypt and Iran. Two important regional targets
5. Eroding Turkey's security ties with the United States

Lets compare that goals then with today's background
1. Russia is part of Middle East quartet. The group was established in in 2002, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
2. Russia's allied states today can be considered Syria and Iran after 90s. Libya is lost and Yemen is in unstable situation years now
3. Algeria and Iraq have made big arms deals with Russia today and have much more dependence for arms on Russia than on US. From the other hand the have close economic relations with USA.
4. This goal has been almost fully achieved, since Iran is a Russian ally in region and Egypt has moved to closer ties with Moscow last years after General Sisi takeover of power. Economic deals, arms deals, joint military exercises have balanced previous decades of US influence
5. Turkeys security ties are eroding to US because of Erdogan's policies and not because of Russia'a actions. We will see how this will be evoluted