On President al-Assad's visit to Moscow
Syria-Russia, Politics, 7/7/1999

The British daily the Times reported on Tuesday that the visit of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad to Moscow aimed at strengthening Syria's position before relaunching peace talks with Israel.

The report said the visit also aims at enabling Syria to obtain Russian weapons at a cost of 1.5 billion pounds sterling. The paper added that some 90% of Syrian military equipment is from the former Soviet Union and that President al-Assad intends to rearm his army with modern Russian weapons.

The paper said the Syrian president is particularly interested in SU 27 jet fighters, T-80 tanks and anti-tank missiles.

For its part, the London-based al-Quds al-Arabi daily said on Tuesday that the Russian military establishment and diplomats alike prefer to open a new page in the relations between the two countries. The paper quoted diplomatic sources in Beirut as saying that Russia is ready to provide Syria with a modern system of Russian warplanes, MiG 29 S.M.T., under production since December, 1998.

Previous Stories:
  Russian sources and al-Assad's visit to Moscow   (7/6/1999)
  Al-Assad to hold official talks with Yeltsin today   (7/6/1999)
  On President al-Assad's visit to Moscow   (7/5/1999)
  Al-Assad's trip to Moscow and potential implications   (7/5/1999)

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