Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Benet that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine be held in Jerusalem, local Israeli media reported today.
The Ukrainian president admitted in a briefing that he made this suggestion to the Israeli head of government, according to the Haaretz newspaper, following the local press assured weeks ago that Zelensky had made that proposal to the Israeli leader.
Zelensky stressed today that he views Israel’s mediation attempts positively, following statements by a senior Ukrainian official who claimed in Israeli media that Benet had pressured the Ukrainian leader to give in to Putin’s demands.
“I have a positive view of anyone who mediates, but I do not consider” Benet “anyone”, since “it can play an important role because Israel is a country with a rich history,” he assured.
He considered that Israel might help provide security guarantees to Ukraine and said he hoped that Benet would exert a relevant influence in the talks with Russia.
Israel is one of the few countries in the international sphere that currently maintains contacts with both Kiev and Russia, due to its close ties with both countries.
However, he has been accused of being soft in the face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Israeli authorities themselves admit that the country “maintains” a “measured” position towards Moscow for its security interests in the Middle East.
Russia, with a military presence in Syria, allows Israel to carry out attacks once morest pro-Iranian militia positions, something that the Jewish state considers a priority for its strategic position.
Last Saturday, Benet was also the first international leader to be received in person by Putin, with whom he held a three-hour meeting in Moscow to discuss the situation in Ukraine.
Even so, until now, as the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel admitted yesterday, the Israeli president has not made significant progress in his attempts to mediate a ceasefire in Ukraineas Russian attacks intensify.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, assured today that Putin has no intention of “stopping the war” for now, denounced that the Russian president “does not respect his commitments” and warned that they plan to apply more sanctions. once morest Russia comparable to those once morest Iran.
