Tel Aviv expects to retain the Golan Heights, a disputed territory between Syria and Israel, and hopes to receive the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s support in this issue, writes Gazeta with a reference to Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten.

As Gazeta states, Russia has acquired a special role in the region. In recent years, Tel Aviv and Moscow have been closely cooperating with each other.  There are two factors that contributed to it – migration of Russians to Israel and a close cooperation within the framework of the Syrian conflict. Until now, there have been no serious disputes in that established cooperation between the countries.

On April 21 of 2016 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will arrive on an official visit to Moscow, where he will meet with Putin to discuss the future of the Golan Heights. At the same time, Russia has not previously stated its position on this issue, Gazeta writes.

Gazeta also notes that the rapprochement between Russia and Israel raises the concern of the US government which believes that the Golan Heights do not belong to Israel and that the resolution of that issue is not possible at the moment, since the military conflict in Syria does not allow to negotiate.

The geographical position of the Golan Heights makes them an important factor for the security of Israel, the author of the article writes. The concerns of Tel Aviv about a possible resumption of the hostilities on its borders are groundless . In addition, the Deputy Foreign Minister of Syria Faisal Mekdad has already threatened that Damascus is going to regain the Golan Heights .