Russia pushes ahead with arms shipments to Syria
Russia is to push ahead with a delivery of S-300 air defence batteries to Syria, the Arab country's deputy prime minister has confirmed.
The Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile systems would make it hard to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria Photo: ALAMY
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
4:03PM BST 22 Jul 2013
“All agreements between Russia and Syria in the area of arms deliveries are in place,” said Qadri Jamil after a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow on Monday. “The contracts continue and are in force.”
Syria has also asked Moscow for a loan, the deputy prime minister said. “I hope that a decision on providing the latest credit to Syria will be taken by the end of the year,” Mr Jamil added, saying that it was too early to identify a sum. “Relations between Syria and Russia are strengthening for the good of peace in the region.”
Russia is the biggest international backer of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. It has vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions that would have imposed sanctions on the Syrian president over the civil war that has gripped the country for more than two years.
Moscow scrapped a deal for delivery of S-300 missile complexes to Iran in 2010 under western pressure and is fighting a $4bn (£2.6bn) lawsuit from Tehran in the international arbitration court for backing out of the agreement.
However, the Kremlin has refused to cave on its agreement to supply weapons to Damascus, despite pleas from the United States and its western allies to stop.
Mr Lavrov said last month that Moscow would honour all its already-inked arms deals with Syria, including the delivery of potent S-300s.
The surface-to-air missile systems would make it hard to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, a measure called for by some opponents of Mr Assad.
