Russia made an effort to open channels of communication between Israel and Iran in a bid to reduce tensions, the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat has reported, citing a senior Russian source.
Moscow's efforts, said to have been made in the wake of the delivery of its S-300 missile systems to Syria, were described as an attempt to "reduce tensions and prevent friction" between Tehran and Tel Aviv over conflicting interests in the Arab Republic.
Russian, Iranian and Israeli officials have made no official comment regarding the authenticity of the report.
This week, Washington urged Tehran to make use of the Russia-US deconfliction hotline to warn the US of any air or missile strikes in Syria following Iran's Monday attack against Daesh (ISIS)* forces just a few kilometers from a US military base, which came without prior warning.
Iranian-Israeli tensions reached a boiling point in recent months over the conflict in Syria. Last month, a senior Israeli military official admitted that Israel had struck over 200 targets in the war-torn country over the past year and a half. Israel justified these attacks by claiming that they have been focusing on eliminating a suspected Iranian military presence.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again rejected Syria and Iran's arguments this week, vowing Thursday that Israel would "continue doing what it takes to defend itself" and "continue blocking Iran's attempts to use Syria and Lebanon as its forward bases to launch attacks on Israel."
Also this week, the Russian military confirmed that it had completed the delivery of several S-300 air defense installations to Syria. On Wednesday, Israeli military officials signaled that Tel Aviv was "unhappy" with the delivery of the S-300 systems to Syria, but added that the Israeli Air Force would not stop its operations in the country.