Russia not to halt S-300 missile sales to Syria

Russia not to halt S-300 missile sales to Syria
Mon May 27, 2013 20:11:14

The military-technical cooperation contracts between Russia and Syria have not been changed, Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riyad Haddad said onMonday.

He told Interfax that all agreements signed between Syria and Russia “are being implemented without any changes.”

The envoy was commenting on reports that Russia allegedly halted the shipment of S-300 missile systems to Syria at Israel's request.

The media hype around Russia's alleged sale of S-300 missiles to Syria is still mounting, with UK press claiming Moscow shelved its agreement with Damascus because of a "deal" with Tel Aviv. Israeli media has shrugged off the report as "a fairytale."

The Sunday Times claimed that Russia agreed not to supply the S-300 long-range surface-to-air missiles under a contract with Syria after a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. 

The newspaper said the two leaders struck a secret deal in which Russia cancels the delivery of the advanced hardware to Syria and Israel refrains from committing further airstrikes in the war-torn country. The report cited an anonymous senior Russian official as its source who quoted "the large Russian community in Israel" as "a major factor in our attitude to Israel”.

The claim was met with skepticism in Tel Aviv, which opposes the sale of S-300s to Syria. The Israeli government's response was also made through anonymous sources.

"This story is detached from reality. A fairytale. There was no agreement or understanding achieved between Putin and Netanyahu. That's another piece of fantasizing," a government official told Ynet on condition of anonymity.

Recently, speculation over Russia’s sale to Damascus of S-300 anti-missile systems emerged in reports in the Wall Street Journal and then the New York Times in early May.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he doesn’t understand the media hype surrounding the rumors. 

“We do not conceal it that we supply weapons to Syria according to signed contracts, violating neither any international agreements, nor our own weapon export control legislation, one of the strictest in the world,” Lavrov said.

Russia maintains that current arms sales to Syria are conducted under existing contracts, many of which are Soviet-era, that the weapons sold are for missile defense, and that no new deals are planned after the contracts are completed.

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