By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW/JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – Israel’s prime minister has condemned Russia’s close cooperation with Iran, which publicly seeks the destruction of Israel, and Moscow’s refusal so far to condemn the Hamas massacres in the Jewish nation.
Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday as fears mount of a broader regional armed Mideast conflict surrounding Israel.
During their 50-minute call, Netanyahu expressed “robust disapproval” of Russia’s “dangerous” cooperation with Iran, Israel’s government said in published remarks.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is providing military and financial support to “its terror proxies” Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon against Israel, according to Israeli and Western officials.
Iran is also backing the Yemeni-based Houthi and Syrian-based militias against both Israel and American forces stationed in the Middle East, several sources have confirmed.
In addition, Iran has also provided Russia with military drones that Moscow has deployed in its invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War Two.
Netanyahu also lashed out at Moscow’s perceived anti-Israel position as, unlike most Western democracies, Russia has not publicly condemned the Hamas massacre of more than 1,200 Israelis on October 7.
ISRAEL ATROCITIES
Israel says the atrocities, the worst recorded atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, or Shoah, triggered the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Netanyahu told Putin, “Any country that would suffer a criminal terrorist attack such as Israel experienced would act with no less force than the one in which Israel operates,” according to a read-out of their phone conversation.
Yet despite the outrage, Russia hosted a senior Hamas delegation in Moscow in October, which observers said led to a further deterioration of Russian-Israeli diplomatic ties.
Under Putin, Russia backed a recent United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Hamas war. However, Moscow failed to condemn Hamas, viewed by Israel and most of its allies as an Islamist terror organization, for its October 7 “unprecedented war crimes” in Israel, the government said.
The United States vetoed the resolution, arguing that it was biased against Israel and “divorced from reality,” as Hamas still threatens the Jewish state’s security.
“The prime minister expressed his annoyance over anti-Israel stances by Russian representatives at the United Nations and other fora,” the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem said.
Yet Netanyahu reportedly thanked Putin for his diplomatic efforts toward the release of three dual Russian-Israeli nationals in November who were being held hostages by Hamas in Gaza.
‘DISPROPORTIONATE EFFORTS’
Russia has consistently criticized Israel’s military efforts in Gaza as “disproportionate.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently accused Israel of using “collective punishment” against all Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli media reported.
“We do not believe it’s not acceptable to use this event for collective punishment of millions of Palestinian people with indiscriminate shelling of the civilian quarters,” Lavrov reportedly said at the recent Doha Forum.
He blamed the United States for the ongoing violence in the Middle East and claimed that the failure to implement a two-state solution has undermined regional stability.
Lavrov did not mention Iran’s role in supporting groups seeking the destruction of Israel and spreading radical Islam across the volatile Middle East, including the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria, known as the West Bank, critics said.
“The single most dangerous factor igniting extremism in the Middle East is the unsolved nature of the Palestinian state,” Lavrov added.
Israel counters that Palestinians have consistently rejected a peaceful two-state solution since it was first presented by the British Peel Commission in 1937.
They also rejected the United Nations Partition Plan in 1947 and Camp David in 2000 amid discussions about territories and the status of Jerusalem that both Palestinians and Israel claim as their capital.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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