BICOM

Russia gave Israel advanced warning of its first air strikes in Syria yesterday, according to Israeli media reports, putting into practice a mechanism agreed between Israel and Russia last week.

Russia’s recent deployment in Syria saw its first operational results yesterday as Russian jets struck three areas, Homs, Hama and Latakia. There are varying reports on their targets, although the Times says that one town hit was being held by the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said that the Russian planes had not targeted ISIS and that Moscow is “pouring gasoline” on the Syrian conflict.

Multiple Israeli media reports say that about an hour before the Russian sorties, Moscow contacted several senior Israeli officials, including National Security Advisor Yossi Cohen, to inform them of the imminent strikes. The warning would appear to be the result of an agreement reached between Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week. 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.

Earlier this week, Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon clarified Israel’s position, saying that despite the mechanism agreed last week, Israel “doesn’t coordinate our operations with Russia.” He explained, “We have interests, and when they are threatened we act and we will continue to act, and that was also made clear to the president of Russia.” He explicitly added, “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.”

However, Ya’alon also emphasised that “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.”