Sergei Shoigu
The Minister of defence of Russia Sergey Shoigu said about the imminent completion of the operation in Syria. He said this during talks in tel Aviv with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, reports “Interfax”.
“In addition to the issues of our military and military-technical cooperation, of course, the main issue is associated with the fight against terrorism and the situation in the region”, — said Shoigu.
Earlier, on 16 October, the Israeli air force destroyed a Syrian anti-aircraft batteries in response to the shelling of Israeli aircrafts. “The Russians alerted in real-time or perhaps just before (impact),” — said the press service of the Israel defense forces (IDF).
On 6 February it was reported about the existence of an agreement between Russia and Israel about the “code of conduct” in Syrian airspace, aimed at reducing the likelihood of conflict between the two countries.On the Israeli side, negotiations were conducted by President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and chief of General staff of the air force Amir Eshel, and with Russian President Vladimir Putin and defense Minister Shoigu.
The goal of the Israelis is to prevent the supply of weapons, particularly guided missiles and positioning systems, in Lebanon and the Golan heights Shiite armed groups. Moscow first got strict Israeli neutrality in the conflict between Damascus and the Syrian rebels.
Russia and Israel have maintained contacts at the highest military level in the fall of 2015. 21 Sep 2015 amid the deployment of Russian forces in Syria held talks with the heads of the General staffs of the two countries Valery Gerasimov and Gadi Gadi eizenkot, combined with the visit to Russia Netanyahu. The outcome of this meeting was created the joint Commission, which co-chairs appointed Deputy heads of the General staffs of both countries. The press reported about the training of air force officers of the two countries on security in the skies of Syria.