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Itongadol.- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had arrived to Moscow to discuss closer military coordination to avoid incidents between Israel and Russia, which launched a military operation in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad last year.
At the start of the talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Netanyahu said that the Golan Heights is a "red line" for Israel and it must remain a part of it.
"We are doing everything to prevent the emergence of an additional front of terror against us at the Golan Heights," he added.
This was the two leaders’ third face-to-face meeting in seven months. During this same time period Netanyahu has met US President Barack Obama once.
The main focus of the Kremlin parley, according to the Prime Minister’s Office, was expected to center on coordinating to avoid accidental incidents between Israeli and Russian forces acting in Syria. Netanyahu and Putin established a mechanism to avoid conflict, when Netanyahu flew to Moscow in September, soon after Russia began its active military engagement in the five-year- old Syrian civil war.
Netanyahu’s retinue included OC Air Force Maj.-Gen Amir Eshel; Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin, who was serving as translator; deputy National Security Council head Yaakov Nagel; military attaché Brig.-Gen Eliezer Toledano; and bureau chief David Sharan.
In addition to the mechanism to avoid conflict, the talks were due to concern the future of Syria, and the Syrian peace conference taking place in Geneva.
He was also expected to reiterate Israel’s position that any future agreement in Syria must include the removal of Iranian, Hezbollah and Islamic State forces now stationed in the country.
Netanyahu was also expected to raise the issue of Russian arms sales to Iran, as well as preventing the transfer of state-of-the-art weaponry to Hezbollah.