Russia warns against arming Syrian rebels
AAP June 20, 2013, 9:45 pm
Russia has warned the West that arms to Syrian opposition forces will end up in the hands of extremists, amid reports that Moscow has readied a shipment of fighter jets for the Syrian government.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the radical al-Nusra Front - an outfit that has been listed by the United States as a terrorist group - would handle weapons earmarked for the opposition.
"The overwhelming number of weapons that get to Syria will be distributed by Jabhat al-Nusra," he said in an interview with the Rossia-24 television channel, according to Russian news agencies.
Russia, Syria's key arms supplier, has strongly criticised military support for the rebels, while defending as legitimate its own arms sales to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Lavrov reiterated that Moscow would honour all weapons deals with the Syrian government.
"We're fulfilling all our contracts," Lavrov said. Asked about the controversial shipment of S-300 air defence systems, he merely said that "those contracts have not been fully realised".
The advanced surface-to-air missiles are designed to counter aircraft and cruise missiles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow postponed the S-300 missiles in order "not to destroy the strategic balance".
A media report said on Thursday however that a batch of Russian combat training jets is ready for shipment to Syria.
The Yakovlev Yak-130 jets will be shipped as soon as political approval is given, a source in the Russian delegation to the Le Bourget airshow told the RIA Novosti news agency.
No numbers were given, but earlier Russian media reports said that Syria had made a $US100 million ($A108 million) advance payment for six trainer jets.
Damascus and Moscow agreed in December 2011 on the delivery of 36 planes.
The United States, citing the use of chemical weapons by the government, announced last week it would give direct arms to opposition forces fighting to oust al-Assad.
The European Union, meanwhile, decided to lift an arms embargo on the Syrian opposition, but agreed not to fulfil it before August.
On the ground in Syria, activists said fighting was raging between government troops, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah movement, and rebels near the capital Damascus.
"The (rebel) Free Syrian Army has surrounded Hezbollah fighters near the Khomeini Hospital in Zayabiyeh village southeast of Damascus," said activist Haytham al-Abdallah.
He told DPA that the rebels were making advances in the area of Seyyeda Zeinab south of Damascus.
Regime troops and Hezbollah militiamen were seeking to cut off rebels' supply routes south of the capital.
Pro-Iran Hezbollah is fighting alongside al-Assad's troops, raising fears that Lebanon may be drawn into Syria's 27-month conflict that has killed at least 93,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Thursday criticised Hezbollah's involvement in Syria and warned of repercussions for his country.
"I want to protect it (Hezbollah) from itself," Suleiman told the Lebanese newspaper As Safir.
"If it participates in the battles of Aleppo (in Syria) and more of the party's members are killed, then there would be more tension" in Lebanon, he added.
