Prime Minister Ehud Olmert boarded a plane on an unscheduled trip to Moscow Thursday morning for a two-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin.
Israeli journalists were not allowed to attend.
The meeting was expected to focus on Putin’s visit Wednesday to Tehran in which he discussed Iran’s continuing refusal to end its nuclear program and the fate of kidnapped IDF reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
Putin reportedly suggested to Ahmadinejad that he suspend the nuclear development program in exchange for removal of the sanctions by the international community.
Both Israel and the U.S. have repeatedly warned the international community that Iran is most likely using the program to build a nuclear weapon.
A Saudi newspaper has claimed that Israel and Hizbullah are close to reaching an accord on the release of the two hostages, who were abducted by the Iranian-backed terrorists in July 2006. The report quoted sources that said both Israel and Hizbullah are willing to back down from some of their demands.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office issued a statement Sunday firmly denying a report in the London-based Al Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that said Goldwasser and Regev were taken to Iran after their abduction.