Israel paid more than $ 1 million to obtain COVID-19 vaccines for archenemy Syria as part of a secret prisoner exchange agreement, according to reports.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted last week that his warm ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin helped ensure the return of a 23-year-old Israeli woman who was imprisoned in Damascus.
But instead of a direct prisoner exchange for two Syrian pastors, as first reported, Israel actually paid Russia to send its Sputnik V vaccines to Syria to facilitate the exchange, according to The Times of Israel and others Israeli media.
Netanyahu remained shy when asked about the reports on Saturday, saying that “no Israeli vaccine” was delivered to Syria – but without excluding Israel from having paid Russia for the supply of the vaccine.
“We brought the woman back. I’m glad we did that. I thank President Putin for doing this, ”he told reporters, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“More than that, I will not add because that was the Russian request,” he said.
The Associated Press said the vaccine deal was $ 1.2 million, while a source told Al Jazeera it was “million dollars”. All details of the deal were censored by the Israeli military, the media said.
“It is legitimate for the Israeli government to decide to deviate from previous rules and pay with another form of currency,” wrote Yoav Limor, an Israeli military affairs correspondent, in Israel Hayom.
“However, the decision to hide this is baffling and worrying. Obviously, someone was very uncomfortable about having this issue come up. “
The Israeli government declined to comment on the inclusion of vaccines in the prisoner exchange agreement, the WSJ said.
Russian authorities have not commented on the deal, while the Syrian state news agency cited an unidentified source who denied that coronavirus vaccines were part of the deal, according to the WSJ report.
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