RUSSIAN JET PENETRATION INTO ISRAEL'S AIR SPACE MAY SIGNAL NEW EAST-MED COALITION
Israel's Defence Minister, Moshe Ya'alon, was informed on Sunday that a Russian jet fighter entered Israel's airspace. According to Mr. Ya'alon, the jet fighter intruded one to two miles into Israeli territory.
Mr. Ya'alon was told about the incident during a radio interview and said that, due to open communication channels between Israel and Russia, a confrontation was averted and the Russian jet fighter left Israel air space. Russia is conducting an air campaign in Syria against rebel groups in the north and north-east of the country, but sometimes also bombs targets close to the Israeli border.
The incident came on the heels of a statement made by Amos Gilad, a former general and a top official at the Defence Ministry at the weekend, who indicated that relations were strong between Israel and Russia.
"Russian pilots cross sometimes into Israel's airspace," he said. "However, excellent military coordination was kickstarted during a Netanyahu-Putin meeting [Israel's Prime Minister and the Russian President met on 21 September in Moscow in order to facilitate military coordination], in which boundaries were set and the IDF and the Russian army concluded a security arrangement."
The cooperation between Israel and Russia is part of a broader coalition in the Middle East. Its members are Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Jordan and Russia. The leaders of Israel, Cyprus and Greece met in the last few weeks and yesterday Mr. Netanyahu, the Israeli PM, conducted a meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Paris, during the climate talks.
Prime Minister Netanyahu pointed to the fact that this was his and President Putin's second meeting and that they had spoken on the phone often.
"I think that, as you say, the events of recent days prove the importance of our coordination, our de-confliction mechanisms, our attempts to cooperate with each other to prevent unnecessary accidents and tragedies and I believe that we’ve been successful," he told President Putin, according a press release published on the official Israel Prime Minister website. "I’m very satisfied by the fact that our militaries have been very careful to coordinate with one another and will continue to do so. I think this is an indication of the openness and the success of the relationship between Israel and Russia, our relationship."
The regional coalition members are in diplomatic confrontation with Turkey. Turkey remains isolated with no allies in the Middle East, as was evident following the incident in which a Turkish jet fighter shot down a Russia jet fighter.
That situation has implications on the natural gas environment in the region, since Russia is the main gas supplier to Turkey and Israeli natural gas investors would love to sell natural gas to Turkey, the biggest customer in the region. However, that will decrease Russia's domination over the Turkish market, an effect that President Putin isn't going to be in a hurry to witness.
Meanwhile Israel, Cyprus and Greece are entertaining the idea of creating an interconnection to mainland Greece and from there to south Europe, another option that might irritate Russia, who is Cyprus's and Greece's best ally (despite the fact that both of those countries are EU members). Another option on the cards is exporting electricity from Cyprus to Europe, generated from Cypriot and Israeli natural gas.
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