Israel’s new foreign minister, Eli Cohen, spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday and passed a message from the US, The Times of Israel reported.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken held his first call with Cohen on Monday. An Israeli diplomatic official told the Times that Blinken was aware of the planned call with Lavrov and asked Cohen to pass a message, the contents of which the Israeli source did not disclose.
Blinken has barely spoken to his Russian counterpart since the February 24th invasion of Ukraine as the Biden administration has largely abandoned diplomacy with Moscow. The only known discussion between Blinken and Lavrov of the war took place in July and focused on a prisoner swap, not the war in Ukraine.
Cohen signaled in comments on Monday that the new Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu might be more neutral toward Russia and Ukraine than the previous government. Cohen said that the Netanyahu government will “talk less” about the war in public.
The previous Israeli governments under Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett did not give military aid to Ukraine but did condemn Russia’s invasion and accused Moscow of war crimes. Before the criticism, Israel attempted to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and that is a role that the Israeli official who spoke with the Times suggested the new government would pursue.
“When the minister said we would talk less, the intention was Israel’s attempts at mediation, the public nature of which — in his opinion — harmed Israel,” the official said.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov told Cohen Russia sought stronger relations with Israel during Tuesday’s call. “The minister congratulated his Israeli counterpart on taking office and expressed readiness to work together in order to strengthen multifaceted, mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Israel,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Pucker up Russia…Get ready to get buttered up. Be careful which way Israel grabs hold of you…
This is what diplomats do-they pass on letters through back channels. Purge yourself.
But they don’t usually announce to the public that they are passing messages. So, Cohen’s announcing the message-passing is intended to send a message to the public. Which, on the face of it, is that the US wants to maintain communication with Russia.
We knew that. I was looking for something specific. Unless I missed something, this is a click-bait article.
Not likely that Russia trusts Israel more than the US. Both are lawless nations, the last UN resolution vote tells it all. Almost all NATO members sided with the US and Israel, there were 26 no votes, only Turkey voted in support and France dared to abstain.
How can democracies become such lawless rogue nations?
Human rights, they abuse human rights more than anyone else. They fund and approve slow-motion geocide in Gaza.
That is how the US provoked this war. It is the original blunder.
Blinken could at any time pick up the phone. He has always chosen not to do so. Therefore, Israel offers nothing, except perhaps an attempt at self aggrandizement pretending to influence over the warmongers running US policy.
It is more confirmation that the USA is not interested in any end of the war, just public manipulation, just pretending they are communicating with Russia and what a great ally Israel is.
To just think, the western powers have not a single real statesman, all we have is a POS.
The NATO alliance has a leadership, the USA, which declares de facto war on one of the biggest allies, Germany and the EU. That was what the sabotage of the pipelines is, and I am convinced that Biden told Olaf Scholz about it when Olaf visited good old Joe in early Feb. 2022. the fatal friendship Kissinger spoke of.
Add the sanctions against allies if they don’t do as told sanctioning Russia.
Was there ever a government in history so openly deceptive of it’s allies as Joe Biden? And no rebellion from the vassals he uses for cannonfodder??
I voted for Joe. I wanted Eugene Debs. I got the guy Obama said to not underestimate his ability to f*ck things up.
I too voted for Joe and I never regretted my vote more. I will never again vote for the lesser of two evil.
I voted for the Green Party Candidate I don’t know who I’ll vote for in 2024. It will be a 3rd Party Candidate.
I have a hard time believing Israel would mediate anything, unless there is something to be gained.
Exactly V…”Israhell “ and “altruistic” do not belong in the same sentence.
IsraHell can’t mediate its own goddamned self. How does this little pissant country think it can mediate a full-blown war?
Don’t forget the AIPAC lobby in Washington.
“… the Biden administration has largely abandoned diplomacy with Moscow.”
The Biden admin has almost entirely repudiated diplomacy with Moscow.
almost?
The USA does not believe in diplomacy, only their own rules to tell others what to do.
Oh yes, “rules based” = follow our rules.
HAHAHA! Israel is NOT going to go against Russia, an important partner. Iran will be interesting to see from now on, as it is close to Russia and of course an “enemy” to Israel. Let’s watch Syria and Turkey too in the new plan relating to the Kurds!
Ukraine is the new main US donor recipient.
That may not portend well for Israel
Bottomless pit.
The entire “we won’t speak directly with you but will send messages through a third party” is so juvenile. It’s like playing “la la la, I can’t hear you” while simultaneously passing notes in class. Whatever happened to rational adult behavior in foreign policy?
They must have missed Ms. Manners when they grew up or maybe it is simply stunted growth due to malnutrition, mostly severe intellectual and moral malnutrition.
cock and balls doodle, I would imagine
Yep, that is Whashington foreign policy in a nutshell.
Why Russia wishes better ties with Israel is hard to see, were it not for the fact that almost half of Israelis are of Russian origin, including some of the first and most famous founding Zionists. Russia should nevertheless tell Israel to stop attacking Syria and that if one of Israel’s planes are “inadvertently” hit by Russian defense missiles, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Yes, as we are repeatedly told “There’s no daylight between ….”
The Russian FM reported the call with a very polite and professional diplomatic statement.
Perfect.
Problem is, the Russians don’t think the USA is agreement capable. Every treaty we have signed, every promise made… eventually broken. If you don’t believe that, just have any Native American explain it to you.