 sorry, that was discovered in northern Tel Aviv. So that same day, the Russian military said that its own anti-aircraft missile systems that are deployed in Syria used by the Syrian army managed to intercept 21 out of 24 Israeli rockets used in a strike. This is a very rare comment on behalf of the Russians. Very much they're saying that that rocket that was found in Tel Aviv belonged to their own systems and they're acknowledging this. And this comes after, you know, other similar reports on behalf of the Russians. All right, we're going to jump right in. I thought you were taking the podium right now. Here's the foreign ministers. Let's listen in. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to once again express my colleague, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel, Yair Lapidou, for accepting our invitation. And soon after his appointment as foreign minister coming to Russia, now we've had a very extensive conversation ranging international and bilateral issues. As per tradition, the atmosphere here has been a very friendly one. And the results that we've reached were very fruitful. Now, we have covered in detail the prospects of bilateral ties between Russia and Israel. And we are happy to say that political dialogue is very intensive, including on the highest level and including the foreign ministers. We have agreed to continue the practice that we have to prepare a plan of consultations between foreign ministers and ministries of the two countries. Both countries are interested, both myself and Mr. Lapid are interested in organizing a new session of the Trade and Economic Cooperation Commission. And we will contact each other as soon as possible and agree on the details of further operations of this very important boarding. We have also agreed to continue cooperation along the lines of various investment projects and other projects agreed upon earlier and supported by both President of Russia and Prime Minister of Israel. Now, we have focused on coordinating our efforts to prevent the efforts to revise history and to revise World War II to prevent glorification of Nazis, to prevent the spread and proliferation of neo-Nazi tendencies that we have observed in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe, Western Europe as well. And we will continue to coordinate our efforts on various international platforms, including the UN, to reach this goal. We have also covered various regional issues such as Israeli-Palestine relations. We welcome normalization of Israel, of relations of Israel with various nations of the region, and we believe that the comprehensive peace process will be boosted by these efforts. Russia will continue to support organizing direct, peaceful dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians, including through the efforts of the Quartet of International Intermediaries. We have also covered the situation in Syria, and Russia believes that, and Israel also believes that the Security Council Resolution 2254 needs to be carried out in full to preserve the territorial integrity and unity of Syria. And Syria has the right to define its future, the future of its nation. We have noted the importance of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians as possible to help them restore the war-torn infrastructure of the country, which is prevented by the unilateral sanctions of our Western counterparts and by the UN Resolution several months ago. We will continue to work in various international organizations, deep contacts in various organizations in the Security Council, in the Ministries of Defense, and this all helps us organize our work in a way that takes into account the interests of both countries in international and regional affairs. Mr. Luznabit invited me to visit Israel, and I will gladly accept his offer. Thank you. Thank you, Minister. I would like to start by offering my condolences on the tragic death of Minister Afgani's in nature. It's a terrible tragedy. In our tradition in Israel, we say, may his memory be a blessing. Seventy-six years ago, my father, Minister, was a child in the Budapest ghetto. He was destined to die. And one day he heard people speaking in a language he didn't understand. And my grandmother was with him, suddenly lifted her head, and she said, it's Russian. The Russians have arrived. We are saved. The Red Army saved the world from tyranny and racism, and they also saved a 13-year-old boy in the ghetto, which is my father. Three years later, the people of Russia supported the creation of the State of Israel, and we owe you, and we are the people with a long memory. I want to thank Minister Lavrov for the important meeting we had today and for his years of friendship with Israel. Next month, we will mark 30 years since we renewed our relations. Russia is one of Israel's most significant and important partners. The Foreign Minister and I discussed ways to strengthen and deepen these relations between the new government of Israel and the Russian government. We all aspire to bring security and stability in a region and to the world. Unfortunately, there won't be stability in Syria or in the wider Middle East while there is an Iranian presence. Iran is the world's number one exporter of terror. It threatens us all. Israel will not sit quietly by while Iran builds terror bases on a northern border, or while Iran supplies advanced weapons to terror organizations. Weapons intended to be used against us. We will maintain our ability to defend ourselves in the face of threats from Syria and elsewhere. We of course recognize that Russia has key interests in the region. That is why we formed the military de-confliction mechanism, which is both necessary and effective. The Foreign Minister and I also discussed the Iranian nuclear program and the danger it possesses to the entire world. The two last two IAEA reports are damning. They include serious violations, fraud, deception, and outright lies. The picture is clear and very worrying, a rapidly advancing nuclear program without any effective supervision. The reports demand the Board of Governors decision. The message to Iran must be loud and it must be clear. Iran's march towards a nuclear weapon is not only an Israeli problem, it's a problem for the entire world. The nuclear Iran will lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. And the last thing any of us want is to see nuclear weapons fall into the wrong hands. The word needs to stop Iran from getting a nuclear capability no matter the price. If the word doesn't do it, Israel reserves the right to act. The Iranians have never hidden the fact that they want to destroy Israel. That is an existential threat to us. Israel will not allow Iran to become a nuclear state or even a nuclear threshold state. Now I don't want to create the impression that the entire conversation between Minister Lavrov and myself was about threats and conflicts. Israel and Russia have strong and deep ties in economics, culture, tourism, energy and science. Without Russia, culture in the world and in Israel would be the same. Without Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Chekhov and Rachmatov and Gogol, without them our lives would be, our lives all would all be much poorer. We want to build on our strong ties and we can. In a word hurt by the pandemic, we need to find new ways to do business, new ways to develop culture and economic ties. There are over a million Russian speakers living in Israel today. One of them is our Minister of Tourism, Yoyel Kosterazbozov, who is here with us today. This is an incredible platform to deepen the ties and to create economic opportunities for both countries. I want to thank Minister Lavrov for the warm welcome and thank President Putin for his friendship and leadership. I look forward to even closer cooperation between our two countries in the coming years. Thank you so much. We will proceed to the Q&A. Please, a commercial newspaper. Good afternoon. I have a question to both Ministers. Have you discussed Israel's airstrikes against Syrian? Has Moscow presented any complaints to the Israeli side with regards to that? Of course, we have discussed all the aspects of the Syrian peace process. The situation is complicated and it's not getting less complicated, which with each fucking thing, too many actors are involved in these processes. Too many actors have interests in the region. Some have legitimate interests, such as the interests of Israel's security. We have always emphasized that this is one of the priority interests for us, both in Syria and in other complex situations. But there are also illegitimate interests, such as the illegal occupation by the U.S. of the vast part of Syria, the exploitation of natural resources that belong to the Syrian people, including agricultural resources, water resources, etc. And of course, the activities of the U.S. to help Kurdish separatism. This also involves Turkey as well, so many interests intertwine with this respect. We also spoke about Iran, which is together with Russia part of the Astana format. The Astana format is aimed at taking in all the reality of the situation on the ground and try to carry out UN Security Council Resolution 2234, meaning respect for the territorial integrity of Syria, which has to be restored, meaning it means that all attempts at separatism need to be prevented. And it means that inclusive political dialogue in Syria needs to be launched. Several rounds have already taken place. And for the past year, we have seen a struggle of the Syrian authorities to organize a constitutional committee and we are doing our best to expedite this process. As for Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian territory, we of course oppose the idea of Syria becoming an arena of confrontation between third parties. This is why we don't want the Syrian territory to be used against Israel, against any other party and any issues that arise here every day are discussed by our military leaders. I think that our military authorities, and I believe that this practice will be continued here today as well. Yes, just to add on Mr Lavrov, the de-confliction mechanism that we have with Russia is, as I was saying, both effective and necessary. Israel has the right to defend itself from attacks from up north that are caused by the Iranian presence in Syria. By the way, we also care deeply about the security of Russian soldiers in Syria and then we are working together to ensure the safety and well-being. And we have, we believe, we have a mutual belief that we have the right mechanism to make sure this is the way it plays. Please, Tass. Good afternoon. I have a question to Mr Lavrov. Earlier today, Tass stated that Kyiv is ready for a Normandy format meeting between Russia and Ukraine, and that expects Russia to confirm its participation. So do you confirm the participation and where will this meeting take place? Well, we've heard lots of statements from Kyiv that the Ukrainian side is ready for all kinds of meetings. The one thing that we don't understand is what's the position of the Ukrainian side at these meetings, because we don't want meetings just for the sake of meetings. We have France and Germany participating in the Normandy format as well. If the Normandy format is to carry out work that is entrusted to it by the leaders of the four states, it means that conditions need to be created to carry out the specific Minsk agreements in full. And when the Ukrainian side, through its prime minister, who likes making these grand statements about meeting as part of the Normandy format as soon as possible, and when we see foreign minister of Ukraine and other officials of Ukraine say the same, what we also see is that at the same time other officials in Ukraine are saying that they will not honor these Minsk agreements. Not just saying that they are passing laws that would prohibit Ukrainian negotiators from actually respecting the Minsk agreements. So, for example, the law that prohibits the use of the Russian language or another law that is being discussed in the Rada that would stop to all the Minsk agreements that have to do with amnesty, with the special status of the Donbass region, and that have to do with the organizing elections there. When this kind of double standards occurs, it's kind of a schizophrenia in a way. So, let's meet in the Normandy format, but we're not going to respect the Normandy format. The Ukrainian side is saying that they have laws that will prevent the success along these lines. So, what they want to do, I believe, is to pressure Berlin and Paris to make them start modifying the Minsk agreements. Not long ago, advisors to heads of state of the four Normandy format countries met. And during that meeting, it was obvious that Germany or France cannot even explain why they would not penalize Ukraine for actually going against the Minsk agreements. Once the Normandy format is agreed by all to be a platform that is created to actually carry out the Minsk agreements, not to rewrite them, only then we will have the reason to actually come together again. Now, Izvestia. I have a question to both ministers. When will the next meeting of the Middle East order take place? It did take place as part of the General of the United Nations General Assembly in September. Thank you. We believe that any attempts to strengthen and restart the process of the Middle Eastern peace process is something that we're welcomed. And I think that the problems and the processes that take place in the region are something that we take part in and we believe that the people of the Palestinian authority need to feel more confident to participate in these processes as well. For now, these processes have been halted. We believe that dialogue needs to be updated in various formats. One of the formats I have already talked about, the direct dialogue between Israel and Palestine and Moscow is ready to provide its efforts to help with that, including acting as a mediator and acting providing its territory where the Middle East parties could meet. Another platform is the Middle East Quartet, Russia-U.S. The UN. And I believe that another meeting could happen. We were talking about a possible ministerial level meeting. Special representatives in the Quartet have spoken several months ago and everyone agrees that work could be restarted. And the Biden administration is actually ready to restart this work as opposed to the previous administration. So we are ready to do this at any moment because we believe it's important to share and exchange opinions on how the international community can create the environment to implement the agreements reached by Israel and Palestine because it's only them that could actually resolve the crux of the issue. I'm just adding that nobody has set the Quartet meeting on the sideline of the General Assembly in New York. It doesn't disqualify the idea, but right now there's nothing of the sort on the table. Thank you. Mr. Lavrov, not long ago, in the city of Deraa, the Syrian army with the help of Russia were able to take control of the situation, but unfortunately a lot of armed groups laid weapons there. Actually, they wouldn't lay weapons unless they guaranteed safety and security. But what's your position on the problem that a lot of weapons and arms are not under the control of the Syrian authorities? Now, a question to Mr. Lapid. A question about Syria. Have you been carrying out talks about a huge peaceful peace agreement with Syria? And has there been any progress? Now, speaking about Deraa and in Syria, of course there shouldn't be territories that are controlled by armed groups that do not belong to the Syrian army. And in Deraa, with the help of the Russian military, an agreement has been reached that in that region, in that part of the country, control by the Syrian authorities will be restored. Before they have the military equipment, all of it will be transferred to the Syrian army and to the Syrian army. Maybe light's equipment would stay with the fighters and they will leave the region. And that's for Idlib. The only way to solve this situation in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 is for our Israeli counterparts to carry out the agreements reached by Mr. Ordiwan and Putin as normal in all the separation of the peaceful opposition and the terrorist organizations. A lot has to be done here and we have discussed that long military lines with our Turkish counterparts. We have been discussing ways to cooperate with our Turkish partners to implement all of the agreements. Work has been done, there is progress, but a lot still remains to be done. As to the second part of your question, there is no negotiation taking place right now with Israel and Syria. There's not much to negotiate actually, aside from security issues. Israel is not even considering and never will returning the Golan Heights to Syria, so therefore there's not much room for negotiation right now. And of course, if there will be any approach towards Israel, we will discuss this with our Russian friends or whoever their own interests in the area. Thank you. All right, friendly handshake there to end this first ever meeting between Israel's Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. They're talking there about cooperation and coordination in Syria to avoid confrontational.