Netanyahu in quick summit with Putin under cloud of Russian S-300 anti-air missiles for Syria
Source: Netanyahu in quick summit with Putin under cloud of Russian S-300 anti-air missiles for Syria
As Binyamin Netanyahu heads to Moscow for critical talks with Vladimir Putin, the impending arrival of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles in Syria raises serious questions about Russia’s real intentions in the country. Israel faces dilemmas in dealing with this and other unexplained aspects of the Russian buildup. Netanyahu has taken the bold step of taking with him to the Kremlin IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkot and the head of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevi. debkafile reports that Putin will be attended by his national security advisor, Nikolai Patrushev.
On Saturday, Sept. 19, just two days before Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the presidential dacha outside Moscow, troops at the Russian base outside the coastal Syrian city of Latakia were seen preparing to deploy batteries of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Their presence in Syria will raise major questions, one of which is this: against which air power are they deployed, given the fact that the Islamic State has no air force.
Their deployment therefore poses troubling ramifications for the ongoing Syrian civil war as well as the region as a whole. For Israel, the placement of S-300 missiles in Syria is problematic for three reasons:
1. They seriously reduce the Israeli Air Force’s freedom of action in Lebanese and Syrian airspace.
2. Following a spate of contradictory and muddled statements about Moscow’s intentions to withhold the S-300s from Syria and Iran – an apparent smoke screen -, it turns out that they are coming to Syria after all.
3. The Russians say they are building up military strength in Syria to fight ISIS. But neither ISIS nor any other regional power poses an air threat to the Russian deployment. So the state-of-the-art air defense missile delivered to Syria, to which Iran too has access, does pose a threat to Israel’s security.
Its deployment in Syria appears to signal that Putin has a long game for his military buildup in Syria – far-reaching that it would appear.
Each day brings news of more Russian forces arriving in Syria. At first, reports said several hundred marines were being deployed, but now preparations are being made for 2,000 of them.
A similar process is occurring with the deployment of anti-aircraft missiles. Initially, reports said that Moscow was providing Syria with the SA-22, known as the Pantsir-S1, but those missiles never arrived. Now, it appears that the S-300 is to be deployed instead.
The arrival of four advanced multi-role Sukhoi 30SM (Flanker) tactical jets in Latakia on Sept. 18 has also raised eyebrows. It came just hours after US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter met with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in an effort to prevent collisions between US and Russian forces operating in Syria. As those jets are intended for air-to-air combat, observers wonder which forces are to be targeted. The same question hangs over the half a dozen MiG-31 interceptors, which landed in Damascus earlier this month.
So what is Putin’s real game in Syria?
In another development that was only noticed in very few circles in the West and Israel, Iranian Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi, military advisor of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on ‘Friday, Sept. 18: “Russia moves in coordination with Iran in some regional issues including Syria.”
In other words, the US and Israel, which are attempting to coordinate their military steps with those of Russia, have already fallen behind.
Reports in Israel over the last few days have claimed that Putin was keen on holding the summit even more than Netanyahu, and that the Israeli Air Force had started setting up a mechanism for liaison with the Russian Air Force in order to prevent inadvertent collisions.
But these plans have been overtaken by events,
There is no doubt that Netanyahu is making a bold statement by bringing to the Kremlin meeting the IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkot and the head of military intelligence, Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevi. This is the first time such high-ranking military officers have participated in a meeting of the Israeli and Russian leaders.
debkafile’s sources in Moscow report that Putin will be attended by his national security advisor, Nikolai Patrushev. This is the Russian president’s way of indicating that, for him, the talks will focus on a general assessment of the Syrian situation, whereas Israel is seeking a discussion on the military aspects of the growing Russian intervention..
In this context, it should be mentioned that, when the commander of Iran’s Al-Qods brigades, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, visited Moscow 10 days ago, the most senior Russian official he met was Patrushev.
WarSclerotic 
September 21, 2015 at 1:22 PM
Despite of any assurances that Putin may give to the Israeli leader -these will be false.These moves by Putin are nothing more than to try to neutralize the IDF air force from making any moves against Iran’s nukes.The ss-300 are for the IDF Air Force and for American forces as well.Time to test the reputation of the ss-300 system.
September 21, 2015 at 2:18 PM
Carlos,
the S-300 has already been tested… unfortunately for the IDF.
An F-16 was turned to pulverized dust closed to the Golan Heights some days ago.
Obviously, that info hasn’t been made public by the IDF, but go and check it out on some American military web pages.
That might actually be the reason why those two TOP generals are with Netanyahu in Moscow.
September 21, 2015 at 3:28 PM
I’m still looking for a link on that one. Any ideas?
September 21, 2015 at 3:45 PM
LS,
if I don’t recall badly, I read it in both global research and NATO’s web page.
If it helps you more, it was sometime in the first half of July, maybe around the 9th or 10th.
Sorry I can’t help you more, but I’m not a person that saves lots of things in my laptop, or that is good with technology for that matter…
September 21, 2015 at 3:58 PM
David the only reference to this incident is mostly from Itanian propaganda networks i.e. Presstv and some phony site called globalresearch, which is again Iranian funded and run to disseminate dis/misinformation. Isreal f-16s have been practicing bombing runs with Greek s-300 for over a decade now and have built in electronic countermeasures. It’s easy to claim anything without the proof to back it up. Don’t you think had this really occurred the wreckage would be all over Arab television?
September 21, 2015 at 3:58 PM
Thanks, I thought it just happened. Seems there’s an article from August on the Global Research site from August of this year:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/syria-shoots-down-israeli-warplane-f-16-bomber-and-helicopters/5471009
Of course, it was sourced from the FARS news agency. Don’t recall seeing it anywhere else. Doubtful? Probably.
September 21, 2015 at 4:03 PM
Good point Jerry. Had one been shot down, the Iranians would have reassembled it and claimed they reverse engineered the entire plane complete with all the top secret equipment on board while rolling out their version for all the world to see. Reminds me of the carved wooden ducks we put on the lake when duck hunting.
September 21, 2015 at 4:22 PM
David, I hope is true what some commentators are saying here that it is not true about the f16mbeing shot down.That the Iranians would be celebrating etc.Putin could have put a damper on those so called celebrations.He is undoubtedly a major player in the region now and perhaps will ultimately wind up solely calling the shots.Clearly the meeting in Moscow is a bad sign that something has happened.Either the ss-300 are now operational and no Israeli plane was shot down or vice versa.
September 21, 2015 at 4:04 PM
Yes Steve as an Iranian who lived during the sprouting of the cancerous regime, who is all too familiar with they’re tactics, this is only Iranian propaganda. Nothing more. Sad to see people lacking in their research
September 21, 2015 at 4:07 PM
Jerry,
I don’t know if global research is Iranian funded or not.
If it’s Iranian propaganda, bad for them. Not for me.
I have no intention on anyone trying to test if those S-300 work or not.
Being suicidal is not in my cards.
I leave that for stupid assholes.
September 21, 2015 at 4:18 PM
Be thankful that there are men in this world who are willing to fight so that people like you can speak freely.
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/38475/cyber-crime/patriot-missile-system-hacked.html
If the patriot can be hacked/spoofed I don’t doubt the the isrealis ability to do the same to the s-300 given they’re history with the weapon system. After all, the s-300 isn’t hard for the isrealis to get their hands on especially with the Russians trying to sell to anyone and everyone these days.
September 21, 2015 at 4:25 PM
Jerry , I pray that you are right.But I am afraid very dark days lie ahead for the world,not just Israel.
September 21, 2015 at 4:42 PM
Jerry,
I think that you have misunderstood my comment.
If you review all my posts in this web page (not many), you’ll see that I’m completely against radical muslims and jihadists.
Having said this, the new SS-300 is a very different system to the old S-300.
It is a super modern, state of the art defense system.
Not to mention the new SS-400, which for now Russia is not even intending to sell to anyone, as the tests finalized pretty recently.
As I see it, the most intelligent thing to do for Israel is to be constructive and cooperative with Russia in the ME region.
That’s why I said in a previous post that I think that Netanyahu has done the right thing with that visit to Moscow.
Now, please bare in mind who he has taken with. The TOP two generals in the country.
Doesn’t that say to you that they are EXTREMELY worried with what might happen in that region, now that Russia is involved (though very little for now) in the Syrian conflict?
Because this is how I interpret it, and from reading one of Carlos Lizarraga’s comment I think he’s on the same page as me.
Carlos, if this is not the case, sorry for my wrong interpretation.
Jerry,
what we the civilized world need at the moment is as follows:
a) Total eradication of the IS. When I mean total, I mean it with all the letters: TOTAL.
b) To stop that illegal invasion of muslims to Europe, and very soon, to the US.
What we normally refer to as the “Western, civilized world”.
Because let me assure you that that political correctness and mellowness that our politicians have with the ME muslim dictators sucks. It sucks.
As far as I’m concerned, Islam should be forbidden in Europe.
It is a time bomb that will explode in the years to come… and then it will be impossible to get rid of them.
They are our enemies, not our “brothers”.
It is unreal the amount of stupid nonsense that our leaders say. And all in the name of political correctness.
Europe, and the Western world for that matter, is superior and better, SUPERIOR AND BETTER, that all the flippin’ muslims of the world put together with their genocidal, killing ideas, religion and philosophy.
And I know well what I’m talking about, for I lived in a muslim country for two years, getting well paid and having an easy life.
And do you know what I did?
Voluntarily resign from my job because I can’t handle their lies and retarded, seventh century mentality.
I actually promised to myself, and I have sticked to it loyally, to never go back to a muslim country in my entire life.
I hope that this clarifies my position sufficiently.
But as I said before: Israel needs to cooperate with Russia.
The opposite would be pure folly.