Yuri Kobzar20:37, 12/10/23

The two leaders accused each other of wrong policies regarding the Gaza Strip.

Today there was  a telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin. For about 50 minutes they exchanged mutual complaints.

“The Prime Minister expressed dissatisfaction with the anti-Israeli position of Russian representatives at the UN and other venues. The Prime Minister sharply criticized the dangerous cooperation between Russia and Iran,” Netanyahu’s office said .

In turn, the Kremlin reported that Putin expressed his dissatisfaction with the actions of the Israeli army in Gaza.

“The focus was on the acute situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone and, in particular, the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. Vladimir Putin confirmed the principled position of non-acceptance and condemnation of terrorism in all its manifestations. At the same time, it is very important that countering terrorist threats did not lead to such severe consequences for the civilian population,” the Kremlin said .

However, this did not prevent the head of the Israeli government from expressing gratitude to Russia for its efforts to free one hostage, who has both Russian and Israeli citizenship, from Hamas captivity. 

Netanyahu also asked Russia to put pressure on the Red Cross to gain access to the hostages and transfer them medicine. In response, Putin expressed his readiness to contribute to a peaceful settlement between Israel and Hamas.

Relations between Putin and Netanyahu

The current leaders of Israel and Russia have a long history of fairly friendly relations, since both profess right-wing conservative views. They are also, to a certain extent, united by the fact that both have ruled their countries for quite a long time, although Netanyahu has done so intermittently.

Relations between them deteriorated sharply after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. Hamas is very close to Iran, which in turn is an important ally of Russia. Putin commented on this attack only on the third day, and even then in the context of the fact that the United States was to blame for everything.

Later, Netanyahu and Putin had their first telephone conversation since the Hamas attack , which was apparently very unfriendly. Netanyahu’s office then generally refused to disclose the content of the conversation, and the Kremlin press service limited itself to general formulations.

(C)UNIAN 2023