Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is traveling to Moscow next week – possibly to realign Israel’s alliances with Russia after the Paris peace talk conference, a top political source claimed late Thursday.
“There’s a possibility that Binyamin Netanyahu will try to harness Russian President Vladimir Putin for the peace process,” the source stated to Maariv.
Whether or not Netanyahu will approach Putin over the issue will depend on the final outcome of Friday’s Paris conference, the source said.
Either way, “obviously, the Palestinian issue and developments in the Middle East will be raised in conversation, as well as the war in Syria and of course economic cooperation between the two countries.”
Netanyahu will make the visit Monday in honor of 25 years of the resumption of diplomatic talks between Moscow and Jerusalem.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Paskov said that Netanyahu and Putin will discuss – among other things – the continued implementation of border security coordination with Syria and a number of economic issues.
The spokesman did not address the question of whether they will discuss the French initiative and broach the subject of Russia’s position regarding the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Netanyahu himself continues to resist the entire idea of the conference on the grounds that it allows the Palestinians to avoid direct negotiations with Israel.
Russia, along with Britain, are not attending the conference.
Such a move would reflect Jerusalem’s budding alliance with Moscow, days after Putin returned a tank to Israel after Netanyahu made the request to Putin during their meeting in the Kremlin earlier this year. During the same meeting, the two reached an agreement to coordinate their actions in Syria.
Netanyahu appears to be reaching out to eastern countries – not only Russia, but also China, Japan, and India – in light of Europe’s insistence on supporting sanctions against Israel and on backing the Palestinian Authority (PA), as well as the US’s bumbling foreign policy in the Middle East during the administration of US President Barack Obama.
