Netanyahu Says Israel Must Continue Syria Strikes despite S-300 Delivery

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told Russia's vice premier in talks on Tuesday that Israel must continue to hit hostile targets in neighboring Syria, despite Moscow's decision to equip Damascus with advanced air defense missiles.

Netanyahu said at a press conference that he told Maxim Akimov in talks in Jerusalem that Israel would continue to fight what it says are Iranian attempts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and channel advanced weaponry to its Lebanese ally Hizbullah.

Despite the delivery of the S-300 air defense systems to the Syrian military, Israel was committed as a matter of “self-defense” to continue its "legitimate activity in Syria against Iran and its proxies, which state their intention to destroy us," Netanyahu said.

It was his first publicized meeting with a senior Russian official since the accidental Syrian downing of a Russian plane during an Israeli air strike in Syria, an incident that raised tensions between Israel and Russia.

Fifteen Russians were killed in the September 17 incident that Moscow blamed on Israel, accusing its pilots of using the larger Russian plane as cover.

Israel disputes the Russian findings and says its jets were back in Israeli airspace when the plane was downed.

In response, Moscow announced new measures to protect its military in Syria, including equipping Damascus with S-300 air defense systems.

Russia and Israel set up a hotline in 2015 to avoid accidental clashes in Syria, but the new measures have led to concern among Israelis that their strikes will now be limited there.

Netanyahu, who met Akimov on the sidelines of meetings of a bilateral economics committee, said he believed that the current dispute with Moscow would be resolved.

"I think that with common sense and goodwill we can come to a solution that will allow the continuation of the good coordination between the Russian and Israeli militaries," he said.

At the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon to discuss coordination.

The leaders have spoken at least three times by phone since the September incident.

Both Iran and Hizbullah are supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in his country's civil war alongside Russia.

Israeli planes have carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria against what Israel says are Iranian and Hizbullah targets.