Watch: Netanyahu meets with US and Russian national security advisers

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday morning was sitting down with the Russian, Israeli and American national security advisers — Nikolai Patrushev, Meir Ben-Shabbat and John Bolton, respectively — in the first-ever such trilateral summit.

On Monday, Netanyahu told Patrushev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top security adviser, that Israel will do “anything it takes” to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons.

Iran’s efforts to entrench itself militarily in Syria and the escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington were expected to top the agenda.

In a statement to reporters, Patrushev said Monday that the summit would focus on “the regional situation, especially Syria,” and place special emphasis on Israel’s security concerns.

“We pay special attention to ensuring Israel’s security,” he said, calling it “a special interest of ours because here in Israel live a little less than about two million of our countrymen. Israel supports us in several channels, including at the UN. The prime minister [Netanyahu] has already said that we share the same views on the issue of the struggle against falsifying the history of World War II.”

Among the issues that will be discussed with Bolton, Patrushev added, were “several ideas about how to reach peace in your region. And once we reach agreement, we should add other states in the region to this format.”

Earlier Monday, during a meeting of the cabinet, Netanyahu called the trilateral gathering “an unprecedented summit between two great powers, the United States and Russia, and Israel — here in Israel.

“The very fact that this summit is happening here is more evidence of the special standing of Israel among the nations of the world at this time,” he said.