Moscow Seeking Closer Ties with Israel Over Syria

The Jerusalem Post reports: Russia wants to increase cooperation with Israel regarding Syria, and would like Jerusalem to use any influence it has to get opposition groups there to lay down arms and enter negotiations, Konstantin Kosachev, a senior Russian parliamentarian, told The Jerusalem Post.

Kosachev, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, was in the country on Tuesday and Wednesday with Viktor Ozerov, the chairman of the Federation Council’s Defense and Security Committee, for meetings with the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

In a late night interview Tuesday in his Jerusalem hotel, Kosachev said that Russia’s intervention and actions in Syria serve the interests of other countries in the region, including Israel.