SOCHI, Russia: Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu warned Russian President Vladimir Putin onWednesday that Israel was prepared to act unilaterally toprevent an expanded Iranian military presence in Syria as Moscow works to end the civil war there.
Russia intervened on behalf of Syrian President Basharal-Assad in 2015, joining a de facto alliance with Iranianforces, Lebanese Hezbollah and other Shi´ite Muslim militiashelping Damascus beat back Islamic State and other Sunni Musliminsurgent groups.
Israel worries that an eventual Assad victory could leaveIran with a permanent garrison in Syria, extending a threatalready posed from neighbouring Lebanon by the Iranian-backedHezbollah.
Meeting Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Netanyahusaid Israel´s arch-foe Iran was fighting to cement an arc ofinfluence from the Gulf to the Mediterranean.
"Iran is already well on its way to controlling Iraq, Yemenand to a large extent is already in practice in control ofLebanon," Netanyahu told Putin.
"We cannot forget for a single minute that Iran threatensevery day to annihilate Israel," Netanyahu said.
"Israel opposesIran´s continued entrenchment in Syria.We will be sure todefend ourselves with all means against this and any threat."Putin, in the part of the meeting to which reporters hadaccess, did not address Netanyahu´s remarks about Iran´s role in
Syria nor his veiled threat to take unilateral military action.
Netanyahu advisers have privately said that their focus ison keeping Iranian forces away from the Israeli-controlled Golan
Heights, the Syrian side of which falls under a partial trucebrokered by Russia and the United States in recent weeks.
In parallel to lobbying Moscow, Israel has been trying topersuade Washington that Iran and its guerrilla partners, not Daesh, pose the greater common threat in the region.
"Bringing Shi´ites into the Sunni sphere will surely havemany serious implications both in regard to refugees and to newterrorist acts," Netanyahu told Israeli reporters after thethree-hour meeting - his sixth with Putin since September 2015."We want to prevent a war and that´s why it´s better toraise the alarm early in order to stop deterioration.
"After the meeting ended, Netanyahu was due to fly back toIsrael for talks with USpeace envoys Jared Kushner, JasonGreenblatt and Dina Powell, who are on a Middle East tour.
Russia has so far shown forbearance toward Israel, settingup a military hotline to prevent their warplanes oranti-aircraft units clashing accidentally over Syria.
Israel´sair force said last week it had struck suspected Hezbollah armsshipments around 100 times in Syria during the civil war, rarelydrawing retaliation and apparently without Russian interference.
Russian diplomats have argued that Moscow´s stake in Syriadeters Iran or Hezbollah from opening a new front with Israel.
"We take the Israeli interests in Syria into account,"Alexander Petrovich Shein, Russia´s ambassador to Israel, told
its Channel One television on Tuesday.
"Were it up to Russia,the foreign forces would not stay."Zeev Elkin, an Israeli cabinet minister who joined Netanyahuin Sochi, said in a radio interview after the talks with Putinthat he had "no doubt that it (the meeting) will lead topractical steps".
Elkin did not elaborate on these.