Netanyahu heads to Paris for marathon meetings with world leaders
Joining 150 heads of government at climate conference, PM to meet with presidents of France, Russia, and counterparts from India, Japan, Canada, Australia and Holland
Raphael Ahren is a former diplomatic correspondent at The Times of Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took off to Paris early Monday for a marathon of sit-downs with world leaders at a climate conference.
The focus of Netanyahu’s one-day trip will be his high-profile meetings with French President Francois Hollande, in which he will express Israel’s solidarity with the French people after the November 13 terror attacks in Paris that killed 130 people; and with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he is expected to discuss Moscow’s involvement in the Syrian civil war.
Netanyahu will also hold a speech to the delegates of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a massive conference, which opens Monday. He is scheduled to attend a lunch hosted by Hollande with nearly 150 heads of government from across the globe — including US President Barack Obama — and to pose with them for a group photo.
Netanyahu’s sit-down with Putin is especially expected to raise interest, given the two country’s deliberations over the ongoing war in Syria. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Sunday acknowledged that a Russian airplane operating over Syria briefly entered Israeli airspace but that the jet wasn’t shot down because the matter was “immediately fixed through communications channels” that exist between the two nations.
Russia recently announced that it has deployed its sophisticated S-400 missile battery and radar array in Syria, claiming that it was in response to Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane last week — an incident that triggered a diplomatic spat between Moscow and Ankara, heightened regional tensions and prompted Putin to announce sanctions against Turkey.
The advanced missile system, completed in 2007, is capable of detecting and destroying aircraft some 400 kilometers (250 miles) away. Its deployment in Latakia will grant Russia aerial control over practically all of Syria, Lebanon and Cyprus, over half of Turkey, parts of Iraq and Jordan — and, of course, Israel: Planes flying in and out of Ben Gurion International Airport — approximately 395 kilometers (245 miles) from Latakia — would be within Russian sights.
Israel has maintained that security understandings in place with Russia since Netanyahu’s visit to Moscow in September will prevent aerial clashes in Syria, where Israel is determined to thwart Iranian attempts to transfer advanced weaponry to Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
In Paris, besides powwowing with Hollande and Putin, Netanyahu is also scheduled to convene his first meetings with three leaders who were recently elected: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Polish Prime Minister, Beata Szydło.
In addition, the prime minister will meet Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Netanyahu is scheduled to return to Israel early on Tuesday.
Apart from the prime minister’s delegation, Israel is sending a 50-strong delegation to the climate conference, known as COP21. The purpose of the meet is to get all 166 UN member countries to sign a binding agreement that will keep global warming below an increase of two degrees Celsius over the next century.
Melanie Lidman contributed to this report.
