Russian Missile Controversy - 01.13.2005
Russia Plans Arms Deal to Syria
Coverage
Russia Will Sell AA Missiles to Syria
Russia Denies Plans for Sale
Israel Asks Russia Not to Sell Arms
Israel Briefed U.S. on Crisis
Russian Deputy FM Talks With Israel
Unknown Crisis Sparks Russia-Israel Meeting
Analysis
Technical Missile Details
Sale Could Tip Balance of Power
"A Cold Wind Is Blowing"
Jerusalem Post
Missile sale to Syria deemed unlikely
By Herb Keinon
Russia is unlikely to go ahead with the sale of sophisticated missiles to Syria at this time, a senior Israeli diplomatic official said following a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
The call, initiated by Sharon, was the first time the two leaders spoke since the proposed sale of sophisticated missiles to Syria strained Israeli-Russian relations earlier this month. According to the official, the conversation – which the Prime Minister's Office described as "long and friendly" -- helped "clear the air."
The call came on the eve of Syrian President Bashar Assad's visit to Russia on Monday. Sharon and Putin agreed to talk again next week, after Putin and Assad meet.
The Sharon-Putin conversation, according to diplomatic officials, focused on the proposed deal that would reportedly include the sale of Igla SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles, among the most sophisticated shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles on the market, and the Iskander-E ground-to-ground precision-guided missile system.
Jerusalem is especially concerned that the SA-18 could fall into the hands of Hizbullah, or other terrorist organizations.
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement saying Sharon told Putin that "Syria and Hizbullah are encouraging terrorist actions against Israeli targets, both from within Lebanon and via Palestinian terrorist organizations, and added that they are the main challenge to the new Palestinian leadership."
Israel has been working quietly through diplomatic channels for weeks trying to scuttle the sale. The US has also expressed its opposition, fearing that the arms could find their way into Iraq and be used against US troops there.
Diplomatic officials said that another problematic issue that has been on the agenda – rising anti-Semitism in Russia – did not come up in the conversation.
"Putin is adamantly opposed to any manifestations of anti-Semitism," one official said. "There is no need to talk about this with him."
Nevertheless, one diplomatic official in Jerusalem said that the issue of rising anti-Semitism in Russia was raised several weeks ago with Russian officials on a number of different occasions.
The official declined to comment on a report that the Israeli Foreign Ministry had intended to summons Russia's ambassador to discuss the matter, but did not want to do so at the present time because of the already existing tensions surrounding the proposed missile sale.
Moscow Times
Mysterious Missiles to Syria
By Pavel Felgenhauer
Last week, news reports originating in Israel and reprinted in the Russian media accused Moscow of planning to sell missiles to Syria. The public commotion that followed was made worse by the cryptic nature of the story. The type of missiles involved was unclear. Was Russia going to sell ballistic medium-range Iskander-E or shoulder-launched anti-aircraft Igla missiles?
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, speaking in Washington during a recent visit, strongly denied that Russia was negotiating any missile sale to Syria. Ivanov suggested that the reports were deliberately released to sour Syrian President Bashar Assad's visit to Russia next week.
What kind of missile talks is Ivanov denying? Some reports indicate that a deal to sell Syria several hundred of the latest generation of Igla missiles has been already signed.
The Iskander and the Igla are both solid-fuel missiles but are very different in size and purpose. The Iskander is a modified version of the Soviet-built Oka missile, which was scrapped under the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. Russian military commanders have lamented the demise of the Oka, which they insisted had too short a range to be included in the INF.
The Iskander has a somewhat reduced range of 280 kilometers to stay clear of INF limitations and not to be subject to international controls that limit the export of ballistic missiles with a range over 300 kilometers. The producers of the Iskander, the Votkinsk Missile Factory, which also makes the SS-25 and SS-27 intercontinental ballistic missiles, believe the Iskander has a good export potential and are promoting the missile on the international arms market, as is the official state arms trading company, Rosoboronexport.
The Russian Air Force has massive attack capabilities, but its planes are relatively old, designed in the 1960s and mass-produced in the 1970s. Russia has some precision aerial weapons from the 1980s that can be delivered by these attack jets, yet these missiles are optically or laser guided and require good visual conditions for usage. The Iskander is believed by our General Staff to close the existing void by providing all-weather night and day precision middle-range capability.
Syria already has mid-range ballistic missiles: Soviet-made liquid-fuel Scud-Bs with a 300-kilometer range and North Korean-made Scud-C and Scud-D modifications with an extended range. However, the Scuds can miss their target by hundreds or thousands of meters, while the Iskander is officially reported to have an accuracy of several meters. If the Syrians got the Iskander, they could hit sensitive Israeli targets like the Israeli Defense Forces headquarters in Tel Aviv with great precision.
The Syrians have a clear interest in the Iskander, while the Russian traders and producers desperately hope to make a ballistic missile export breakthrough in a market that has been dominated by the North Koreans since 1991. Ivanov stated that there were no official negotiations to sell missiles to Syria, but there are several different semiofficial entities in Russia that can negotiate and deliver almost any modern weapon while the authorities turn a blind eye, provided the buyer has the cash.
Since 1998, the Tula-based KBP arms factory has sold Syria up to a thousand updated Kornet-E guided antitank missiles. The Pentagon alleged that some of the missiles were smuggled into Iraq and used against Allied Forces. Washington imposed sanctions on KBP, but that did not stop it from continuing to export. In the late 1990s during the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia, both sides got Su-27 and MiG-29 jets with mercenary pilots from Russia, as well as other modern weapons, including several hundred of the newest Igla missiles equipped with an optical image recognizer that cannot be deflected by decoys.
The Igla could be used effectively by Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon against Israeli aircraft or in Iraq against the United States. There are currently thousands of older Russian Igla-1 and Strela missiles in the Middle East. The deployment of a weapon that cannot be deflected by decoys could make a deadly difference in the region.
The latest Russian-Israeli missile crisis has once again highlighted the issue of who (if anyone) really controls the export of sensitive technologies and weapons from Russia. It sometimes seems that exports are only controlled by the greed of arms traders and corrupt bureaucrats.
Pavel Felgenhauer is an independent military analyst based in Moscow.
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Agence France-Presse - 01.14.2005
Russia brushes off Syria arms talks
MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia said Friday its relations with Syria were absolutely transparent and once again denied reports that it planned to sell a powerful new high-tech missile to Israel's sworn enemy.
"There are no negotiations taking place over this particular issue. There are preparations for the visit of President (Bashar) al-Assad to Moscow at the end of this month," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.
Israel charges that Russia is planning to sell its latest-generation Iskander missiles to Syria, which harbors several militant groups, supports the Lebanese-based militia Hezbollah and is technically at war with the Jewish state.
The issue was raised Thursday by Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom during talks with Russian officials.
But Lavrov, echoing comments made earlier in Washington by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, said the charges were groundless.
"We don't have any hidden topics in our relations with Syria," he said. "We are ready for wide cooperation respecting our international obligations."
Ivanov said in Washington that Russia was not negotiating the sale.
The Iskander is developed by the KB Mashinostroyeniya institute, one of five Russian arms factories that has a right to negotiate its own contracts with foreign customers, skirting the Russian government.
But a spokesman for the company told ITAR-TASS news agency that no foreign state has yet placed orders for its new weapon.
That seemingly contradicts a report in the Kommersant business daily that Syria first approached the plant two years ago and placed an order for up to 18 missiles at a later date.
Syria is now interested in eight or nine missiles, Kommersant reported Wednesday.
"At this time, no government has placed an order with us for this type of system," institute spokesman Vladimir Yunker told ITAR-TASS on Friday.
Syria enjoyed close ties with Moscow during the half-century-long Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The Iskander -- also known as the SS-26 -- is the updated version of the Soviet-era Scud missile used by Saddam Hussein's Iraq against Israel during the Gulf War.
It was first tested by Russia in 1996, has a range of just under 300 kilometers (180 miles), and reportedly can easily overcome existing air defense systems.
Each missile has two 480-kilogram (1,055-pound) warheads that in tests hit targets with an accuracy of 20 meters (yards).
The missile has no NATO equivalent and would be able to strike almost any spot in Israel -- and much of Iraq -- if acquired by Syria.
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Ha'aretz
Israel asks Russia not to sell arms to Syria
By Aluf Benn, Amos Harel and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
The planned sale of advanced Russian missiles to Syria will disrupt regional stability, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Thursday. He said Israel has asked Moscow should call off the deal, adding that no diplomatic crisis exists.
The defense establishment is concerned that Syria may transfer the advanced shoulder-launched surface-to-air SA-18 missiles, known as Igla, to Hezbollah - which may give the missiles to a Palestinian terror group that could threaten aircraft taking off and landing at Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Shalom was the first official to confirm publicly that Israel has asked Russia to halt the deal.
"We turned to the Russians and asked that they not complete this deal," Shalom said Thursday. "Syria is a country that supports terror and is supplying Hezbollah with weapons nonstop."
Shalom said the sale "will disrupt regional stability and won't improve the chances for peace."
"There is no crisis in relations with Russia," he said.
When asked about the missile issue on Wednesday, Shalom said: "We have close contacts with the Russians. We had consultations over the past few days, and we hope to reach the necessary agreement."
Israeli officials said the deal for the sale of the Igla SA-18s from Russia to Syria was signed several days ago. However, the press service of Russia's main arms export company, Rosoboronexport, said it had no information that such a sale was planned.
The Moscow daily Kommersant reported Wednesday that Russia has proposed selling Syria the Iskander-E missile systems, which has a target radius capable of reaching nearly all of Israel, including the nuclear reactor site outside Dimona.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said during a visit to Washington on Wednesday that Russia is not conducting any talks with Syria on deliveries of the Iskander-E, but did not comment on any sale of Igla SA-18s, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported.
"Talks with Syria is a figment of imagination," Ivanov said. He added that the Iskander missile systems are in any case not covered by any export limitations or Russian obligations.
Ivanov suggested media reports about Israel's opposition to an arms deal were due to speculation over the agenda for Syrian President Bashar Assad's upcoming trip to Russia. Tension has been mounting in Jerusalem ahead of the January 24-28 visit.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Russian Federation Council international affairs committee announced Thursday that newly elected Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will also be visiting Russia at the end of January, the Interfax news agency reported.
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday expressed strong opposition to the missile deal, and hinted at threats of sanctions on Syria should the deal take place. Spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington is against the sale of deadly military equipment to Syria, a state that shelters terrorists.
The Igla SA-18s are among the most sophisticated shoulder-held antiaircraft missiles. Because of their simplicity, light weight and a built-in training system, they also are an ideal weapon for militants, military analysts said. They can hit planes flying as high as 3,500 meters at a range of 5-8 kilometers.
The sale has been the focus of a simmering dispute between Israel and Russia that has developed over recent months as it became evident that Moscow was leaning toward supplying the missiles to Damascus. Syrian President Bashar Assad is due in Moscow in two weeks, and hopes to sign a contract for the deal at the time. Syria would pay for the missiles with oil profits.
Israeli government sources said Wednesday night that Jerusalem is trying to prevent the deal from taking place, but will not do anything to damage ties with Russia. They said Israel has a clear interest in maintaining a good relationship with Russia.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Sultanov, who was here as an observer for Sunday's Palestinian elections, met with Shalom on Tuesday, and the two discussed the missile issue.
Shalom emphasized that Syria supports terror and routinely transfers weapons to Hezbollah. "The entire world is isolating Syria. That's what France and the United States are doing. Why should you behave differently?" Shalom asked. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon also sent a similar message to the Russians through a separate channel.
The defense establishment is particularly worried about the possibility that Syria would transfer the shoulder-launched missiles to Hezbollah, thereby creating a deterrent against Israeli planes near the border. Furthermore, Hezbollah, which has become deeply involved in Palestinian terror, could transfer the missiles to a West Bank terror organization that would be able to threaten aircraft taking off and landing at Ben Gurion Airport.
However, a security establishment source said that the missile sale would not represent a change in the strategic threat Israel faces, Israel Radio reported Thursday . According to the source, the army operates under the assumption that the Hezbollah already posseses such weapons.
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Ha'aretz
Russian missiles could tip the power balance in favor of Syria
By Amnon Barzilai
If the Russian Iskander E missile is cheap enough, Syria could acquire more of the missiles than Israel has of the much more expensive Arrows, thus tipping the balance of power between the two countries, says Uzi Rubin, a former head of the Homa missile defense project in the Defense Ministry.
Speaking to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Rubin said that Iskander E missiles in Syria would not only be a threat to Israel, but also to American forces in Iraq.
The missile is considered a particularly accurate delivery device, a one-stage solid fuel missile with a range of 280 kilometers and accurate to within a few dozen meters of the target.
It is presumed capable of carrying a non-conventional warhead, weighs 3,800 kilograms and can carry up to 480 kilograms in a payload. It travels at 1,500 meters a second and is transported and launched from a vehicle that can carry two of the missiles.
The U.S. and Israel are accusing Russia of violating the international non-proliferation of missiles treaty if it goes ahead with the Iskander E sales to Syria, even though the treaty bans the international sale of missiles with ranges of more than 300 kilometers (20 kilometers more than the Iskander) and capable of carrying more than 500 kilograms as a payload (20 kilograms more than the Iskander).
Israel and the U.S. believe Russia deliberately developed the missile to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the international treaty, and specifically to sell to Syria and Iran.
Israel is not worried by the sale of the missiles to Iran, which is 1,300 kilometers away. But the presence of the missile in the Iranian and Syrian arsenals should worry the U.S. army in Iraq, say Israeli officials.
Israel also notes that the relatively short range of the missile also poses a problem to Syria, since if Syria wants to hit Israeli civilian populations located along the coastline, it would have to move the missiles very close to the border, which would make them vulnerable to the Green Line radar system that is the heart of the Arrow anti-missiles defense system.
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Ha'aretz
Israel briefed U.S. on crisis with Russia
By Aluf Benn
Israel reported to the American administration on the recent crisis in its relations with Russia. Israel did not ask the United States to intervene in solving the problem that caused the crisis to erupt, even though the Americans dealt with this matter in the past.
Consultations held by the political echelon in Jerusalem resulted in a decision to attempt to solve the problem through direct talks with Moscow, and not to get help from the U.S. for the time being.
Tension is mounting in Jerusalem ahead of Syrian President Bashar Assad's first visit to Moscow, on January 24. Assad will meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss bilateral cooperation in various fields. Putin is scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush about a month later in Slovakia.
As reported in Haaretz last week, the crisis in Israeli-Russian relations was the focus of a special meeting that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened 10 days ago with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the heads of the intelligence community. The meeting ended with the Foreign Ministry being assigned to take charge of reviewing the matter and suggesting ways of resolving the problem.
A first discussion took place early this week at the Foreign Ministry, with representatives of all relevant branches in attendance, but no recommendations have been submitted yet to the political echelon.
Political sources in Jerusalem yesterday denied the Channel 2 news report that the reason for the diplomatic crisis is Putin's anger over alleged intervention in the Ukrainian elections by people in Israel, and their support for his political rivals. The political sources said the problem stemmed from something completely different which concerns Russia's conduct.
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Ha'aretz
Russian deputy FM discusses crisis with Israeli officials
By Haaretz Service
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov visited Israel on Wednesday and discussed with government officials a recent crisis between Moscow and Jerusalem over reported Russian plans to sell Syria missiles capable of striking targets within Israel.
The details of the crisis were reported Wednesday in the Moscow daily Kommersant.
Saltanov, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday, met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Vice Premier Shimon Peres and senior Foreign Ministry officials.
According to the report, the Iskander-E missile has a target radius capable of reaching nearly all of Israel, including the nuclear reactor site outside Dimona.
Only the southern Negev and Eilat would be out of range.
Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have expressed concern that the missiles would get into the hands of Hezbollah and disrupt the military balance in the Middle East.
The Russian daily reported that Israel recalled its ambassador in Russia over the deal.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted to the publication Wednesday, and said there was no crisis in Israel-Russia relations.
Israel has briefed the American administration on the crisis in its relations with Russia. Israel did not ask the United States to intervene, even though the Americans have dealt with this matter in the past.
Consultations held by the political echelon in Jerusalem resulted in a decision to attempt to solve the matter through direct talks with Moscow, and not to get help from the U.S. for the time being.
Meanwhile, tension is mounting in Jerusalem ahead of Syrian President Bashar Assad's first visit to Moscow, on January 24. Assad will meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss bilateral cooperation in various fields. Putin is scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush about a month later in Slovakia.
The Kommersant report was based on recent Haaretz accounts of a severe crisis in relations between the Sharon and Putin governments.
The Iskander is a relatively new weapons systems, having been developed in the 1990s. Two years ago, Damascus sought to purchase 18 of the systems, but the matter was delayed by final testing of the missile. The tests were completed in August.
Rumors of cause of crisis
As reported in Haaretz last week, the crisis in Israeli-Russian relations was the focus of a special meeting that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened 10 days ago with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the heads of the intelligence community. The meeting ended with the Foreign Ministry being assigned to take charge of reviewing the matter and suggesting ways of resolving the problem.
A first discussion took place early this week at the Foreign Ministry, with representatives of all relevant branches in attendance, but no recommendations have been submitted yet to the political echelon.
Political sources in Jerusalem Tuesday denied the Channel 2 news report that the reason for the diplomatic crisis is Putin's anger over alleged intervention in the Ukrainian elections by people in Israel, and their support for his political rivals. The political sources said the problem stemmed from something completely different which concerns Russia's conduct.
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Ha'aretz
A cold wind is blowing
By Amir Oren
Russian President Vladimir Putin is a personal friend of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. At least that's what Sharon was seduced into believing, reckoning that he had persuaded Putin two years ago to give up selling advanced anti-tank weapons and planes to Syria.
The Syrians are well aware of their military weaknesses in air and surface-to-air battles with the Israel Defense Forces, but Israel has not been satisfied with Syria's level of awareness and tried to sharpen it. It's an example of an Israeli policy that was too successful.
Over the last couple of years, Israel has taken to attacking Syrian military targets in response to activities by Hezbollah and Palestinian organizations based in Damascus. The Syrian air defense system, radar and surface-to-air missile systems have been exposed as poor. Assad was personally embarrassed by noisy Israeli air sorties right over one of his palaces while he was there.
The Israeli intention was to pressure Assad into limiting the activity of his proxies on the northern border. The results could be the opposite, prompting him to strengthen his air defenses. And the address for that is clear: Russia.
President Assad, who last year visited Beijing to strengthen bilateral ties with China, will be going to Moscow in two weeks for a three-day official visit. On that festive occasion, Assad could ask Putin for vital military assistance.
If that happens, it will be a later, smaller version of what happened when Israel bombed deep inside Egypt in the winter of 1969-1970, prompting President Gamal Nasser to visit Moscow and plead with Leonard Brezhnev to send him planes - and pilots - as well as the surface-to-surface missiles that were so devastating to the Israeli air force during the war of attrition and the first week of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Brezhnev or Putin, Soviet or Russian, Arab leaders expect weapons and not only words from Moscow.
This is Putin's second term, and he feels free of commitments to those who granted him the office - the Yeltsin family and their associates - and toward someone else who won a second term, in Washington. Putin is angry at George Bush, who has long since won in Afghanistan but has kept his military bases in central Asia, in former Soviet counties.
The Russians are not thrilled by the expansion of NATO and the European Union toward their borders, their "near abroad," as they call it. The victory by pro-Western forces over the pro-Russian forces in the Ukraine, which created a rare confluence of agreement between Bush and Western Europe, worries Putin and the Russian security establishment that surrounds him and from whence he came.
The Foreign Ministry's center for political research, the smallest and poorest of Israel's intelligence branches but perhaps the most sober of all of them in its political assessments, has been warning in recent weeks about the formation of a Sino-Russian axis as a counterweight to the American supremacy in the world, which would have a bad influence on Israel's strategic position.
Such an alliance could rip open a hole in the front that has formed against a nuclear Iran. Bush prefers to devote 2005 to political activity, to go through two more elections in Iraq (for a constitution and the permanent government), and only after 2006 go to war against the ayatollahs. But Sino-Russian opposition could speed up Bush's military moves.
The incoming American foreign policy leadership - Condoleezza Rice, the designated undersecretary Robert Zelick and the designated deputy secretary for political affairs Nicolas Barnes, now ambassador to NATO - is considered friendlier to Israel than the outgoing trio - Colin Powell, Richard Armitage and Mark Grossman.
That leadership is more aggressive toward Iran, more suspicious of Russia and more combative toward Syria, against whom the U.S. has suspended its tensions for the coming weeks in exchange for a promise from Damascus to freeze its aid to the opponents of an Iraqi election. This is all far from being a replay of the Cold War, the conflict that had so many ramifications for the Israeli-Arab front, but there is a searing cold in the air. It may be seasonal, but it could last.
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Ha'aretz
Crisis with Russia sparks special high-level meeting
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
A "highly classified problem" was the real reason for the special meeting on the crisis in Israel's relations with Russia that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened earlier this week, government sources told Haaretz.
The sources said that the information given to the media after the meeting - that Israel is worried by recent statements of an anti-Semitic nature made by President Vladimir Putin - was partial and tendentious, and was aimed at concealing the real reason for the crisis, which Sharon insisted be kept secret.
Participants at the meeting included Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, the heads of the intelligence agencies, and a few senior civil servants.
Sharon initially enjoyed a good relationship with Putin, but on his last visit to Russia in November 2003 he failed to persuade the president to drop his idea of getting the United Nations Security Council to adopt the road map peace plan.
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Russia to Sell Advanced Missiles to Syria
By Maria Golovnina
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday it wanted to supply Syria with advanced missile systems, a move certain to anger the United States which accuses Syria of having links to terrorism.
Russia had long denied reports it wanted to sell missiles to Syria, its Cold War-era ally. The United States and Israel have urged Moscow to drop any such plans, saying Russian arms supplies would only strengthen militants in the Middle East.
"Talks are underway with this country to sell it Strelets air defense short-range missile systems," the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
The statement said Strelets missiles are not man-portable and can only be used when attached to a heavy vehicle -- which officials believe makes them less attractive to militants than the relatively cheap and easy-to-use shoulder-fired missiles.
Earlier this week, a senior U.S. diplomat in Moscow said the United States remained concerned over any arms trading with Syria that could lead to missile technology falling into the hands of terrorists.
"Our bottom line is that they (the Russians) should not be providing any military assistance to Syria since they are a sponsor of terrorism," said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Relations between the United States and Syria are already tense and the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri this week has further strained them.
U.S. officials say Syria's military presence and political power-broking role are responsible for Lebanon's instability and on Tuesday Washington recalled its ambassador to Syria and said it was considering imposing new sanctions on Damascus.
SHOULDER-FIRED MISSILES
The news of Moscow's intention comes just days before Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Bush are due to sign a deal to curb trade in shoulder-fired missiles when they meet in Bratislava on Feb. 24.
Media reported earlier this year that Moscow was looking to sell Syria its flagship Igla shoulder-fired missiles, widely used by militants around the world. But the Defense Ministry on Wednesday reiterated that arms trade with Syria included no Igla missiles.
Russia has stressed it carries out arms exports strictly in accordance with international law and pledged to do nothing that would destabilize the Middle East.
Moscow -- already at odds with Washington over its nuclear ties to Iran -- has said U.S. terror accusations against Syria are hurting the Middle East peace process.
Moscow's efforts to forge closer ties with Syria are part of its plan to regain its long-lost influence in the Middle East.
During last month's visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia agreed to write off a huge chunk of Soviet-era debt held by Syria.
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