JERUSALEM, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that he will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next week in Moscow, after he cancelled a planned meeting because of domestic political issues.
The meeting will be held next Wednesday in the Kremlin, according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office.
The two leaders spoke by phone earlier on Thursday, a day after a meeting between them was cancelled by Netanyahu amid expected union by two of his biggest rivals ahead of the April 9 elections.
Next week's meeting is part of the continuing efforts by Israel and Russia to coordinate their moves on the Syrian battleground, as the two armies hold a hotline to avoid clashes of their air forces.
Russian forces have been fighting alongside the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrike in Syria against Iranian targets and arms convoys to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese militia.
