Israel has sent a letter to the defence ministry in Moscow asking for new arrangements for cooperation after the deployment of a Russian S300 air defence system in Syria, Haaretz reported on Sunday. The request was originally reported in Russia’s Izvestia, which cited an unknown security source as saying, “In the context of the hotline between [Israel and Russia], the Israelis sent us a request to develop new procedures and open-fire rules to be added to the existing coordination mechanism.”
The Israelis and Russians established such a mechanism last year when Russian started its air strikes against Syrian opposition groups. The aim was to prevent “misunderstandings”. According to Haaretz, the source said that the Israeli request was made in order to prevent any accidental attacks on Israeli planes flying over Syrian territory.
Earlier this month, Russia stationed S300 anti-aircraft missile defence systems at its naval base in Tartus on the Syrian coast. Washington expressed its fears that these could be used to intercept US cruise missiles.
“We are currently developing our response and will send it to the Israelis in the context of the agreed upon procedures between the [two] sides,” a Russian official has said.
One specialist in Israel-Russia relations said that the reinforcement of Russia’s military presence in Syria, including the S300 systems, is part of the Washington-Moscow conflict. “Israel has nothing to do with it,” insisted Alex Tenzer. “For Russia, it is not a regional conflict, but global. So Russia needs to establish military cooperation with Israel in Syria at the same time that Israel needs this cooperation.”
Russia took measures involving the S300 system following Washington’s suspension of talks with Moscow over the Syrian issue. It is also worried that the US might target the Syrian army loyal to Bashar Al-Assad in Aleppo.