Strengthening relations between Russia and Iran is of concern to Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.
"This relationship, this partnership, is certainly worrisome because Iran gets weapons that it uses to achieve goals against Israel, against Arab states and against many others," Netanyahu said, responding to a question about how strengthening ties between Moscow and Tehran is changing Israel's relationship with Russia. He also claimed that Iran is allegedly supplying Russia with "lethal weapons" (referring to drones) that are being used in military actions in Ukraine.
"We express our concern to the Russian authorities. <...> And I think they are aware of this," the Israeli prime minister noted.
Moscow and Tehran have repeatedly denied claims that Iranian drones were supplied to Russia for use in Ukraine. Press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov called such reports fake and stressed that the Russian army uses domestically produced drones. In November 2022, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that the republic had supplied drones to Russia, but in small numbers and a few months before the start of the special military operation in Ukraine.
Israel's position on the Ukrainian conflict
The Israeli prime minister stressed that the position of Israel on the Ukrainian conflict is not neutral.
"We are not neutral, we have expressed solidarity [with Ukraine] and our position on Ukraine," Netanyahu said, commenting on statements by the Ukrainian embassy in Israel that Israeli authorities have taken a pro-Russian stance, "hiding behind demagogy about their neutrality." "But what I am saying is that we have a limit, we have limitations, and we have reasons for concern and interests of our own. My main interest, despite the solidarity and the measures we are taking [to support Ukraine], is to ensure the security of the only Jewish state," the prime minister stressed.
Since the beginning of 2022, Ukraine has repeatedly asked Israel to provide it with weapons, including air defense systems, but the Israeli side has consistently rejected all requests. The authorities of the Jewish state stressed that in the interests of national security, they would limit themselves to supplying Kiev with humanitarian aid and non-lethal equipment. In particular, Israel promised to help Ukraine with the deployment of an advanced civilian air attack warning system.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS