Russian President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the two countries must improve their military cooperation in Syria, the Kremlin said in a statement Saturday.
Putin emphasized the importance of upcoming consultations between defense experts from the two countries during the conversation, which was held at the initiative of Netanyahu, the Kremlin said.The two leaders were said to be considering holding a meeting in person.
Putin and Netanyahu also discussed Israeli operations on the border with Lebanon, according to the statement.
On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces announced the start of Operation Northern Shield to find and destroy cross-border attack tunnels dug by the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group. It has said it has found two such tunnels thus far.
A senior Israeli minister said Friday that Israeli forces may need to go into Lebanon to deal with the newly revealed Hezbollah attack tunnels that snake under the border.
“If we think that in order to thwart the tunnels that one needs to operate on the other side, then we will operate on the other side of the border,” Israel Katz, who holds the intelligence and transport ministries told Radio Tel Aviv, according to Reuters.
Katz was reiterating a warning made Thursday by an unnamed senior Israeli official. So far, IDF forces have been working to find and destroy the tunnels from the Israeli side of the frontier only.
An IDF incursion into Lebanon would likely spark a major confrontation with Hezbollah.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah seeks to send “entire battalions” into Israel, including via the tunnels Israel is now tackling, in order to seize land, and kidnap and kill Israelis.
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