Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Why Israel stands to benefit from the Trump-Putin summit

“We both spoke with Bibi Netanyahu and they would like to do certain things with respect to Syria, having to do with the safety of Israel,” Trump said Monday.
“Both countries will work jointly. Creating safety for Israel is something that both President Putin and I would like to see very much.”
During their talks in Helsinki, Putin called for “full compliance” with the 1974 Israel-Syria Separation of Forces Agreement.
“This will bring peace to the Golan Heights and bring a more peaceful relationship between Syria and Israel and also to provide security for the state of Israel,” Putin said.
Trump and Netanyahu have a long relationship and maintain regular contact, while the Israeli leader traveled to Russia last week for his third meeting in six months with Putin to press for Israel’s security and pushing Iran out of Syria.
Working on the Syrian conflict will take an unusual degree of cooperation because Washington and Moscow back different sides in the 8-year-old civil war.
Both Putin and Trump expressed optimism that working together could help end the humanitarian crisis in Syria. Putin also called for coordination between the two countries’ military forces. READ MORE