Israel says it strongly condemns Moscow’s decision to finish a deal that would supply P-800 Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria, considering the step a disruption of (military) balance in the region.
Israeli political officials say Moscow has gone too far, noting that the deal would not improve ties between the two sides. Supplying Syria with advanced weapons at this time in particular is not a step that would encourage moderates in the Middle East, officials went on to say.
Israel expects Russia to follow through with the deal, despite promises from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to withdraw from it, the Israeli YNet paper reported.
Israel demands that Russia provides clarity to its concerns that Syria would use the rockets in question to arm Hezbollah in Lebanon; a step it says would pose a threat to Israeli naval ships in the Mediterranean, particularly off the Lebanese coast.
Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said Russia does not believe the deal would risk arming “terrorists” in the region.
So, did Medvedev dare to oppose the Israelis, even though Moscow and Tel Aviv signed recently quite a number of deals for military cooperation? Or did Putin manage to regain more influence in this subject?
@Carlo: greetings dear friend!
You know, the sale of Yakhonts to Syria is no big deal since Syria is a lame duck anyway, both politically and militarily. If these missiles got into the hands of Hezbollah, which I hope, of course, that would be a different ballgame altogether, but selling some Yakhonts to Syria is not like selling S-300s to Iran. As for the Israelis, they are *always* ‘outraged’ by something. That kind of “oi veh!” “gwalt!” is just their way of bitching to see if that can get them some more favors. It’s their “homeostasis” if you want.
While I do not dispute the hypothesis, I see no signs of a rift between Putin and Medvedev. After all, Putin is still the PM so you would have to think that they act in accord.
Most likely the US was willing to pay Russia for not selling the S-300 to Iran but it was not willing to also pay for the Yalkhonts not to be sold to Syria. So the Russians sold them.
No biggie here – just your average day in the cynical world of international relations.
Say, Carlo, have you seen the latest documentary by Oliver Stone: “South of the Border”? I am curious to hear what you think of it.
Cheers!
The Saker
Well, for me it seems that there is a riff between Putin and Medvedev. Of curse I may be wrong, who really knows what is going on in the Kremlin?
Have a look at this:
http://en.rian.ru/papers/20100915/160596854.html
(read the first article, “Russian-U.S. military cooperation continues its rapid expansion”).
About Oliver Stone’s latest film, I still didn’t watch it. Yes, it is surely interesting, I will try to watch it soon and then I tell you what I think.
Greetings!
It will be interesting to see what happens come the next presidential elections in 2012. A showdown between Putin and Medvedev on foreign policy might then be exposed for all to see.
Returning to the subject of this post, Russians sources are saying these missiles will be used to defend the Russian naval base in Tartus:
http://en.rian.ru/mlitary_news/20100920/160652217.html