Syria looks for Russian arms deal
Taken from FT.com
By Isabel Gorst in Moscow and Roula Khalaf in London
August 20, 2008 6:26:00 PM
Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s president, arrived on a two-day visit to Russia on Wednesday seeking new weapons and greater military co-operation and hoping to capitalise on the rising tensions between Moscow and the west.
In an interview with the Russian daily Kommersant, the Syrian leader said arms talks would top the agenda during discussions on Thursday with Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Syria is eager to revive a deal to import Russian Iskander ballistic missiles, which have better targeting systems than its existing arsenal of Scud missiles. Talks over the missiles were abandoned two years ago.
Mr Assad said Russia’s conflict with Georgia, in which Moscow claims Georgia used Israeli-supplied equipment and military training, had underlined the need for Russia and Syria to bolster their military co-operation.
Syria remains in a state of war with Israel, which has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967, although the two sides have been holding indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators.
“Everyone knows about the role Israel and its military consultants played in the Georgian crisis,” Mr Assad said, adding that Russia could no longer count on “friendliness” from Israel.
However, analysts said that Russia would hesitate to upset amicable relations with Israel cemented this year when Israel abandoned a deal to supply military tanks to Georgia at Moscow’s behest.
“Israel did us a favour so I would be surprised if Assad got what he wanted,” said Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian defence analyst.
Moscow has a long history of military co-operation with Syria, its closest ally in the near east, and has forgiven debts for past arms supplies.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia remained a friend of Syria but it also developed ties with Israel.
Moscow’s support was crucial in restraining the international pressures that fell on Damascus in recent years over its role in Lebanon and allegations of involvement in the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister.
Meanwhile, Russia’s navy stations maintenance and supply vessels at Syria’s Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean, its only military installation outside the CIS, but has no warships there.
Mr Assad arrived in Russia as the US and Poland finalised a controversial agreement to deploy part of a US-anti missile shield on Polish soil, in a move spurred by Moscow’s intervention in Georgia.
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