Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is to meet with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, for the first time since July in a sign of thawing relations between two of Syria’s key power brokers. Russia-Israel relations deteriorated sharply after the 17 September downing of a Russian IL-20 spy plane, which saw 15 Russian crewmen killed by Syrian air defences during an Israeli strike. Mr Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that he had spoken with Mr Putin and would soon meet him to discuss military coordination around Syria, a battlefield that has drawn the two countries into at-times fraught opposing stances. Mr Putin absolved Israel of responsibility over the plane incident, but warned Mr Netanyahu “Not to allow such situations in the future.” A Russian Il-20 intelligence plane was accidentally shot down by Syrian forces responding to Israeli airstrikes last month Credit: Marina Lystseva/AP Last week, relations were further strained as the first components of Russia’s S-300 air defence system were delivered to Syria, giving the country the capacity to repel the sort of aerial attacks Israel relies on to police its eastern flank from Shia militants. Despite the recent chill, Russia and Israel have been largely successful at de-conflicting military actions in a highly complex theatre. Russia is widely credited with turning the war around for Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, whose victory now is all but assured. But in propping up Assad, Russia has heralded the Syrian expansion of Iran and the Shia paramilitary group Hizbollah, on which Assad has relied heavily. For Israel, the growing footprint of Shia militancy in Syria, whether Lebanese, Iranian or foreign conscript, is a red line. Mr Netanyahu has sworn to prevent Iran from deepening its military presence in Syria and using the country as a bridge to transfer weapons to Hizbollah in Lebanon. He has made good on the threat: last month, Israeli officials claimed the country had launched more than 200 airstrikes on Iranian military targets inside Syria since 2017. It is not known how the S-300 will impact such tactics. For Mr Netanyahu, Sunday’s announcement was a bit of good news on an otherwise dark day. His wife, Sara Netanyahu, appeared in Jerusalem Magistrate Court on fraud charges, accused of misusing $100,000 (£76,000) in state funds to order high-end take-away meals despite employing a private chef. Mr Netanyahu is implicated in the charges, with investigators alleging he told staff to cover up the fact that the couple had hired a cook, so as to avoid double-dipping on the state allowance for meals. The case dates back to 2010, and has long been a thorn in the Netanyahus’ side, threatening to lift the lid on the couple’s private life. The next hearing is scheduled for 13 November.
