(17.07.2019)
During a trilateral meeting between the national security advisers of Israel, the US and Russia in late June, Jerusalem and Washington demanded that Moscow ensure the withdrawal of Iran’s forces from Lebanon and Iraq, as well as from Syria, Channel 13 news reported Tuesday.
The demand was seen as a condition for US and Israeli support for a long-term arrangement to secure peace in war-ravaged Syria.
A diplomatic official told Haaretz that “this unprecedented meeting of two world powers with Israel, in Israel, underscores its global standing and sends a powerful message to the region, especially to our enemies. The meeting is a climax of many political steps, among them Netanyahu’s meetings with presidents Trump and Putin. These meetings created the opportunity for a historic meeting such as this, which will contribute a great deal to Israel’s security interests in the region.”
Spokesman Garrett Marquis said on June 20 that Bolton will meet on June 23 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then hold talks with Meir Ben-Shabbat and Nikolai Patrushev, his Israeli and Russian counterparts.
The White House announced Wednesday that U.S., Israeli and Russian national security advisers will meet in Jerusalem in June to discuss regional security issues.
National Security Advisor John Bolton has been holding a series of talks in Moscow with senior Russian officials including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.
(23.8.2018) Patrushev, according to state-run RIA news agency, said that no statement had been written “because the Americans wanted this to say that we had meddled in their elections, as is their opinion, but we deny this.”
Bolton said they also discussed Syria and Iran.