Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says Russia is going ahead with deliveries of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian army.
The arms will help deter foreign intervention, following Monday’s confirmation that the EU embargo on supplying arms to the terrorist ‘rebels’ is to be lifted said Ryabkov.
He added: ‘We consider these supplies a stabilising factor and believe such steps will deter some hotheads from considering scenarios that would turn the conflict international with the involvement of outside forces.
‘The arms that we supply are defensive weapons.’
He said the contract for the S-300 missile systems had been signed several years ago.
Ryabkov also accused EU leaders of double standards, saying of Monday’s decision: ‘This is a reflection of double standards and a direct blow to the international conference on Syria proposed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry on May 7th.’
The other issue of concern according to Ryabkov is the American reluctance to invite Iran to the conference.
Russia’s envoy to Nato, Aleksandr Grushko said that his government was acting ‘fully within the framework of international law’, in delivering the arms to the Syrian government.
‘We are not doing anything that could change the situation in Syria.’
Grushko criticised a decision by the European Union not to renew its arms embargo.
‘We hope that there will be no such deliveries, since the most important message today is that there is no other option than a political dialogue in the given situation.’
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton confirmed on Monday that from now on, every EU member country has the right to make its own decision on arms exports to Syria, meaning EU countries could now supply the foreign backed terrorists in Syria with weapons.
• Israel ‘will know what to do’ if Russia delivers anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, its defence minister said yesterday, in an apparent allusion to another airstrike on the war-torn neighbouring country.
‘The deliveries have not taken place, and I hope they do not. But if, by misfortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do,’ Moshe Yaalon said.
