Last Update: 06/09/2004 13:45
Russian FM welcomes Israeli cooperation on terror
By Haaretz Service

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is to hold talks Monday with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, amid media reports that in the wake of the Beslan tragedy, Israel is to propose unprecedented anti-terrorism security cooperation with Russia, including sharing of sensitive intelligence data.
Israel is also expected to offer to accept a significant number of child victims of the hostage siege for rehabilitation in the Jewish state.
Lavrov said Monday that Israel's renewed offer to share its experience of combatting militant groups, in the wake of the Russian school massacre, would give a boost to the fight against global terror.
Speaking to opposition leader Shimon Peres at the start of a whirlwind day of meetings with officials in Jerusalem, Lavrov said terrorism is one of the biggest challenges facing the international community.
"We appreciate the very strong readiness of the Israeli people to help Russia at this hour and this will certainly strengthen the counterterrorist coalition these days," he said.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said prior to meeting Lavrov, "We can help, because we have gone through these same things." Shalom cited the 2001 Dolphinarium nightclub suicide bombing, in which many of the casualties were young immigrants from Russia, a number of them pupils at the same high school in south Tel Aviv.
Along with humanitarian aid, Israel expected to discuss with Lavrov "the possibility of bolstering cooperation on the war on terror. This is a central matter, increasing security as well as diplomatic cooperation, and if they come to pass, this will have positive results in the worldwide struggle against terror."
Anti-terror alliance
On Sunday, Lavrov and Sharon independently called for an international anti-terrorist alliance, as Lavrov arrived on the scheduled visit to Israel, a part of his planned swing through the Middle East.
"I believe we have to draw lessons from this appalling crime," Lavrov said. "Terrorism can be stopped only by uniting efforts of all the states. Russia will fight this evil resolutely and uncompromisingly in the framework of the anti-terrorist coalition. We hope that the solidarity with our country shown by our partners will become a driving force behind the worldwide struggle against this scourge of the 21st century."
Even before the Russian hostage tragedy began, Lavrov had said that that Russia was interested in closer cooperation with Israel on terrorism.
"Our countries are both in the crosshair of terrorism," he told Haaretz last week. "To fight this universal evil in a vigorous way is one of the areas where we can and should unite our efforts. During the forthcoming visit, we'll sign a memorandum on the deepening of cooperation between our foreign ministries, which provides the framework for the functioning of an anti-terrorism working group."
"[The] fight against terrorism has nothing in common with [the] fight against Islam," he added. "To present this fight as a kind of a religious conflict or a clash of civilizations would only play into the hands of terrorists who in reality have neither national nor religious identity."
Reserve IDF colonel Ephraim Michaeli, former Israeli military attache to Russia, indicated Monday that heretofore, anti-terror cooperation between the two nations had been limited.
But Michaeli added that Russian officials held Israel's anti-terrorism capabilities in high esteem. "The Russians admire Israel in this sphere," he told Army Radio.
"In this regard, it could be said that in the eyes of the Russians, we represent a superpower like the United States and Russia, no less than that."
Sharon, who spoke at the Sunday cabinet meeting before Lavrov's arrival, said of the Russian school attack: "Once again it has been proved that terror... does not distinguish between adults and children. Terror has no justification. This is the time for the free, decent and human world to unite and fight this terrible epidemic, which has no borders."
In a telephone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday, Sharon offered condolences for the attack, and called for expanded intelligence coordination between the two countries. He said that "cooperation is essential in the fight against the dangerous phenomenon of terror, which does not distinguish [among victims] and harms women and children," according to a statement issued by his office. Sharon is scheduled to meet Lavrov today.
Lavrov's visit is part of a previously scheduled trip through the Middle East. But following the recent wave of violence in Russia, Israeli officials said the talks would likely focus on the need for greater anti-terror efforts.
"They understand now that what they have is not a local terror problem but part of the global Islamic terror threat," an Israeli official said.