Netanyahu: Putin understands Israel’s position on Iran

Prime Minister Netanyahu says Russian President Putin fully appreciates Israel’s determination to prevent Iran from building up its militarily presence in Syria and stop Lebanon from building precision missiles.

“The question is: Does Iran entrench itself in Syria, or will this process be stopped? If it doesn’t stop by itself, we will stop it,” he tells Israeli reporters from Moscow after meeting with Putin for several hours.

“We also spoke about Lebanon, which is becoming a factory for precision-guided missiles that threaten Israel. These missiles are a grave threat that Israel cannot accept,” he says, adding that he told Putin that Israel will act whenever it feels threatened.

“I explained our policy; these are not idle words,” he says. “They understand our position, they understand well the significance that we give to these threats,” he adds, acknowledging, however, that he cannot say the Russians “accepted” the Israeli position.

Netanyahu says that his conversation with Putin was “frank, very straightforward, in the positive sense of the word.”

As a gift, the Russian president handed him an original letter from Oskar Schindler to his wife, Netanyahu says.

— Raphael Ahren