BICOM

A senior Russian military delegation is expected to arrive in Israel today, to being talks over how Israeli and Russian forces can avoid inadvertently clashing in Syria.

Russia’s recent deployment in Syria prompted Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to travel to Moscow last month to meet Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Netanyahu said that he and Putin, alongside their respective chiefs of staff had agreed a mechanism to “avoid any misunderstandings between our forces” in the future. It is thought that Israel has carried out a number of air raids over Syria since the civil war began, in order to prevent arms transfers to Hezbollah.

This week’s meetings between senior military chiefs from both countries are set to further define and coordinate the mechanisms being put in place. The Russian delegation is headed by First Deputy Chief of General Staff General Nikolai Bogdanovsky, who will meet his Israeli counterpart, Deputy Chief of Staff Major-General Yair Golan. An unnamed Israeli officer told Reuters that, “The two will meet at military command headquarters in Tel Aviv as part of the two-day visit of the Russian army delegation to Israel. Among other matters, they will discuss regional coordination issues.”

On Sunday, Netanyahu told CNN that, “I went to Moscow to make it clear that we should avoid a clash between Russian forces and Israeli forces.” He explained that, “In Syria, I’ve defined my goals. They’re to protect the security of my people and my country. Russia has different goals. But they shouldn’t clash.”

Israel’s Defence Minister further elaborated on Israel’s stance last week, telling local media “We are not involved and we don’t have any interest to intervene in the civil war in Syria, but we have to keep our interests.” He explicitly explained this meant that “whoever tries to transfer advanced armaments to terrorist groups, particularly Hezbollah, we’ll strike them, and whoever tries to transfer chemical weapons to terrorist groups, or Hezbollah, we’ll strike them.”