Russia, Israel security heads meet in Moscow over Syria

By Abdul Raouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat has met with Russian counterpart Nikolai Patrushev in Moscow to discuss the current situation in Syria, the Israeli media reported on Tuesday.

According to Israeli media reports, Ben-Shabbat’s visit to the Russian capital was not announced in advance.

At the Monday meeting, the two men discussed “efforts to reach agreement between Israel, Jordan and the U.S. on the deployment of regime forces in southern Syria and Israeli demands that Iran be prevented from maintaining a presence in the country”, Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

The Israeli government, for its part, which has repeatedly stressed its rejection of a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria, has yet to officially comment on Ben-Shabbat ’s visit to Moscow.

In recent months, Israel has carried out several air attacks on Iranian targets inside Syria that reportedly left a number of Iranian military personnel dead.