.Plot thickens over Israeli PM's secret Russia trip
The plot thickened on Thursday over a secret trip by Israel's prime minister, as his office admitted it had misled about his whereabouts but stopped short of denying reports he had stolen away to Russia.
Meanwhile Iran insisted Thursday there would be no suspension of its uranium enrichment program following a proposal to world powers Wednesday aimed at resolving the atomic program standoff.
Secrets and Missiles
"The prime minister was busy with a confidential and classified activity," Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement. "Having had the best intentions, his military attaché... acted to defend that activity and did this through an announcement to the media" that said he had spent the day at a security facility in Israel, it said.
But the statement did not deny media reports that Netanyahu had flown to Russia aboard a private plane on Monday to discuss Moscow's arms sales to arch-foes Syria and Iran.
In Moscow, the Russian authorities said that the Israeli premier had met neither his counterpart Vladimir Putin nor President Dmitry Medvedev, but did not explicitly deny the trip itself.
The mystery around the prime minister's day-long disappearance from public view is unfolding alongside another -- that the Arctic Sea cargo ship supposedly seized by pirates and later recovered by Russia was secretly carrying S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems bound for Iran.
Russia has denied that the ship was carrying S-300s and Russian investigators have announced that their inspection of the vessel turned up only its official cargo of timber.
Israel has for years tried to convince Russia not to sell S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, which the Jewish state fears Tehran could deploy around its controversial nuclear sites.
Al Arabiya
Meanwhile Iran insisted Thursday there would be no suspension of its uranium enrichment program following a proposal to world powers Wednesday aimed at resolving the atomic program standoff.
Secrets and Missiles
"The prime minister was busy with a confidential and classified activity," Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement. "Having had the best intentions, his military attaché... acted to defend that activity and did this through an announcement to the media" that said he had spent the day at a security facility in Israel, it said.
But the statement did not deny media reports that Netanyahu had flown to Russia aboard a private plane on Monday to discuss Moscow's arms sales to arch-foes Syria and Iran.
In Moscow, the Russian authorities said that the Israeli premier had met neither his counterpart Vladimir Putin nor President Dmitry Medvedev, but did not explicitly deny the trip itself.
The mystery around the prime minister's day-long disappearance from public view is unfolding alongside another -- that the Arctic Sea cargo ship supposedly seized by pirates and later recovered by Russia was secretly carrying S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems bound for Iran.
Russia has denied that the ship was carrying S-300s and Russian investigators have announced that their inspection of the vessel turned up only its official cargo of timber.
Israel has for years tried to convince Russia not to sell S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, which the Jewish state fears Tehran could deploy around its controversial nuclear sites.
Al Arabiya
posted by madtom at 12:23 AM
1 Comments:
I speculate that he went to Russia to trade proof that they were shipping s-300 timber missiles on that 'lost' freighter for some cooperation on the coming Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities... but if anyone has a better guess?
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