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Follow Up Article to Syria Buying $1 billion in Russian Weapons
Followup to the earlier article today, this one from Defense Industry DailyA Cut-Out Purchase? Kommersant cites a number of indicators that this may be the case, including a Janes report in May 2007 that a similar arrangement has being used to funnel some of Syrias 36 new Pantsir-S1E air defense systems to Iran in exchange for a fences (sorry, "intermediary") fee. They also cite the 2 countries recent mutual defense agreements, including the July 2006 agreement signed by both countries defense ministers, which envisaged Iranian financing of Syrian arms deals with Russia, Ukraine and China. In response, Russian authorities have issued non-denial denials. Russias Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said in a statement that "...all of Russias deals in the sphere of military-technical cooperation comply with international law and Russias obligations under various treaties and United Nations resolutions." Since none of those obligation prohibit sales to Syria, this response is utterly meaningless. I'm not entirely sure they even prohibit sales to Iran. Sergei Chemezov, head of state arms-trading monopoly Rosoboronexport, is quoted as saying that "Russia has no plans to deliver fighter jets to Syria and Iran." Of course, a sale of fighter jets only to Syria would comply with this statement -- and if the Syrians choose to send them to Iran, that concerns Syrias plans and not Russias.... "That's not my department, says Werner Von Braun..." Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-05-17 |
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