Russia confirms determination to provide Syria with non shoulder- borne air defense missiles
Russia on Wednesday stressed its determination to sell new air defense missiles to Syria despite Israel's fears, but it explained that these weapons are middle-range and will not violate the military balance in the Middle East. This, however, did not prevent Washington from expressed unease.
The Russian Interfax news agency quoted an anonymous official at the ministry of defense saying "we are making negotiations on handing over Damascus short-range air defense systems of Strelts type." The Russian official explained that the system Moscow intends to sell to Syria will be installed on vehicles and cannot be used borne on shoulders.
He also explained that this "type of systems is not movable. This is not anti-plane borne systems and they can not be used without special transport means."
However, the Russian ministry of defense explained immediately that Russia does not think of handing over "Iskander" missile or other mobile copies of these intermediate range missiles ( of 280 Km range) that puts Israel in this range.
The confirmation of underway negotiations on selling missiles by the Russian ministry of defense came upon the announcement made by the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon that Russia admitted selling Syria missiles despite his reservations. Sharon stressed that the Kremlin promised him that these weapons will not fall in the hands of "terrorists."
The Russian security official also denied Moscow's earlier denial of rumors that it intends selling Syria the long-range "Iskander" missiles which can carry warheads. These missiles can reach any target in Israel from the Syrian lands. The Russian official said "all reports on Damascus's possible handing over Iskander missile ..are not realistic." Both Israel and the USA expressed their worries towards selling Russian ground- air Russian made SA-18 missiles to Damascus for fears these missiles will end at the hands of Hizbullah.
On Wednesday, the American administration expressed its regret over reports on Russia's intend to sell "Strelts" missiles. One prominent American official could not comment on the details of the report stated by Inter-Fax, just said "We do not think that weapons should be sold to countries sponsoring terrorism."
