WarSclerotic

An IDF delegation met with Russian defense officials in Moscow on Wednesday and briefed them on an operation launched last week to expose and neutralize Hezbollah attack tunnels into Israel.

They also discussed “improving the two militaries’ deconfliction mechanism” in Syria, where Russia and Israel maintain a hotline to coordinate operations and prevent aerial collisions.

In September, previously close ties were strained after a Russian warplane was hit by Syrian forces responding to an Israeli air raid. All 15 people aboard were killed and Russia blamed Israel for the incident. In October, Moscow said it had delivered S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Syria as a response.

“The delegations reached understandings and they agreed to continue their joint work together,” the IDF said in a statement after the meeting.

Israel frequently carries out airstrikes in Syria against Iran and its proxies, in an effort to prevent sophisticated weaponry from reaching Lebanon’s terrorist Hezbollah group.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin on Israel’s crackdown along its border with Lebanon.

During their phone call, initiated by Netanyahu, Putin “stressed the importance of ensuring stability in the region,” the Kremlin statement said.

A statement from Netanyahu said that in his phone call with Putin he had also “stressed once more Israel’s policy aimed at preventing Iran’s entrenchment in Syria and at acting against Iran and Hezbollah’s aggression.”

Thus far the Israel-Lebanon border has remained largely quiet but there are fears of an escalation.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon confirmed the existence of a tunnel near the Blue Line, the U.N.-demarcated border between Israel and Lebanon, last Thursday, describing it as a “serious occurrence.”

Israel is also concerned about Hezbollah obtaining precision-missiles and in September identified three locations in Lebanon where it said the group was converting “inaccurate projectiles” into precision-guided missiles – something Lebanon’s government has denied.