Russia’s role in prisoner swap shows deepening strategic relationship with Israel

Syria announced two Syrians may be exchanged for an Israeli woman

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at an online session of the Davos summit from the Kremlin. File photo / EPA

Israeli national security chief Meir Ben-Shabbat travelled to Moscow on Wednesday to try to finalise a deal in which two Syrians will be exchanged for an Israeli woman held by the regime of President Bashar Al Assad.

For years Israel and Russia co-ordinated closely over war-torn Syria.

Israel turned to Russia for help in retrieving the woman, who was arrested after straying into Syria by mistake, despite the two nations having different policies regarding the Assad regime.

Moscow, which has enormous influence with Mr Al Assad, is trying to revitalise his rule as the almost 10-year civil war winds down.

Israel has no firm role in the conflict but wants to minimise Russian and Iranian influence in the region and keep its borders safe.

It is not the first time Russia has assisted Israel in this way.

In 2019 it successfully retrieved the remains of Israeli soldier Zacharia Baumel from Syria in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a difficult mission.

The 21-year-old’s family waited 37 years for the return of his body.

Russia needs calm to rebuild the Assad regime and Israel wants peace along its northern border, creating a "shared interest", said Shaul Shay, former deputy chairman of the National Security Council, which is now led by Mr Ben-Shabbat.

Co-ordination dates back to the intense fighting in the Syrian civil war, when the Russian air force struck rebel targets and Israel agreed not to interfere.

Open, regular channels of communication were forged.

Then, after Iran moved missiles into Syria for use by Hezbollah and others against Israel, Russia acquiesced to Israel conducting hundreds of raids to destroy them, said Efraim Halevy, former director of Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad.

"There has been in recent years a machinery set up. I don't want to use the word co-ordination, but of averting mishaps in the air," Mr Halevy, who led Mossad from 1998 to 2002, told The National.

"Mostly this has been successful and therefore Israel has been able to carry out several hundred air sorties against Iranian weaponry that has travelled to Syria.

The Russians don't want Israel's necessary actions to flare into a major conflagration so they need a degree of understanding with Israel on its parameters

"One assumes there has been ongoing dialogue between Israel and Russia over the years."

Those talks could range from discussions between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mr Putin, to the commanders of the air forces, said Mr Halevy, who emphasised that he had no knowledge of what was happening in the current negotiations.

Israel has to be careful not to harm relations with Washington in its dealings with Russia, he said. And the Russians must take their relations with Iran into account.

"The Russians don't want Israel's necessary actions to flare into a major conflagration, so they need a degree of understanding with Israel on its parameters," Mr Halevy said.

Russia has been building up its presence in Syria, including the expansion of a naval base, he said.

He declined to say if there was a quid pro quo in which Israel agreed to the Russian expansion in exchange for its air force being able to strike targets in Syria.

"When there is a climate of dialogue and discourse you reach understandings," Mr Halevy said. "I wouldn't say there is a common strategy."

Mr Shay said Israel used Russia to send messages that it would not tolerate an Iranian presence at the border with the Golan Heights, which Israel occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed.

"Russia does not prevent Israel from attending to the Iranians, Iranian militias and Hezbollah" in Syria, he said.

The Israeli government is anxious to bring the missing woman home and on Tuesday held a session on the matter, the contents of which were not divulged.

Israeli society is in many respects tightly knit and the country has a history of agreeing to lopsided prisoner exchanges and freeing prisoners who killed soldiers or civilians to bring back one citizen.

Ten years ago, Mr Netanyahu agreed to exchange 1,037 prisoners, some of whom had killed Israelis, in exchange for a young soldier, Gilad Shalit.

So the release of two prisoners to the Syrians in exchange for the Israeli woman, if it happens, is likely to be welcomed by the public.