Bennett meets with Putin to address Iran's nuclear challenge

 Bennett landed in the Russian city of Sochi for his first meeting with Putin. During the meeting, the main topics discussed were the Iranian nuclear threat and intervention in the Syrian conflict, as well as political, economic and security issues. 

At the beginning of the meeting, Naftali Bennett declared that relations between Russia and Israel were very special, and stressed the importance of ties with the country. In turn, Putin also expressed the importance of relations with Israel in the hope that they would be as fruitful as they were under the previous Israeli government. 

Bennett's meeting with Putin follows a meeting between Yair Lapid, Israel's foreign minister, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow.

Bennet took over as prime minister in June, succeeding Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom Putin maintained a close relationship. 

Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's finance minister, declared last Thursday that the standoff with Iran would not last much longer. Following these statements, Bennett and Putin are expected to set out a series of measures against Iran's nuclear programme. 

The international community continues to try, without success, to bring Tehran to the negotiating table in Vienna. 

At the end of the meeting, which lasted nearly five hours, Bennett was forced to extend his visit until the end of Shabbat. 

According to a statement from Bennett's office, "The meeting was warm and positive and covered a range of issues of importance to the two nations". 

There was no comment on the meeting from the Russian leader.