News Analysis: Putin not to change Russian policy despite talks with Netanyahu

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News Analysis: Putin not to change Russian policy despite talks with Netanyahu

By Adam Gonn (Xinhua) 08:37, November 22, 2013

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JERUSALEM, Nov. 21 -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday traveled to Moscow to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin of the dangers of a nuclear armed Iran.

It was Netanyahu's second meeting this week with a leader from the P5+1 group, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany. He met with French President Francois Hollande on Monday and praised Hollande for his tough position on Iran. However, Netanyahu is hard-pressed to find the same understanding in Russia.

Analysts that spoke to Xinhua said that while Putin most likely listened to Netanyahu's argument, Russian policy isn't likely to change and the country will continue to push for a deal with Iran. However, the analysts pointed out that while the two leaders disagree on Iran, there are a number of issues they do agree on and relations between the two nations will remain good.

Baruch Gur-Gurevitch, of the University of Haifa, said that " Netanyahu won't achieve a lot; he is going to brief Putin and explain his opposition to the deal that is now developing with Iran and Putin is going to explain to him that he needn't to worry. "

SYRIA: AN EXAMPLE FOR IRAN

While Israel and Russia do not agree on the nature of Iran's nuclear program, Netanyahu following the meeting issued a statement saying that he does prefer a peaceful solution to the dispute and he pointed to Russia's solution for dealing with Syria 's chemical weapons as a good example.

Gur-Gurevitch said that "Putin will bring the example of Syria as a good example that instead of attacking Syria, they worked out a deal that took care of the chemical weapons in Syria without any attack. And Putin will express to Israel that they don't have to worry about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad staying in power."

Presumably Netanyahu replied to Putin that the deal on Syria only came through as the United States and France was preparing to attack Syria following allegation that Assad used chemical weapons on his own people.

And therefore without the threat of continued sanction or a military option, which Netanyahu has made clear there is by stating that Israel doesn't feel bound by any agreement between the P5+1 and Iran, a similar deal won't be reach with Iran. But without any notes from the meeting made public its impossible to tell how Putin reacted to Netanyahu's reasoning.

However, despite the disagreement on Iran and fears by the Israeli side that the P5+1 countries including Russia might sign a "bad deal" against Israeli interests in the upcoming negotiations with the Persian country, Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Russia and a research fellow at the Institute of National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told Xinhua on Thursday that relations are between Israel and Russia remain quite good and that there are extensive commercial connections.

（Editor：LiangJun、Zhang Qian）