Moscow has announced that it intended to fulfil its contract to supply Syria with Anti Ship cruise missiles despite the turmoil shaking the region and the furious condemnation of the deal by Israel.
“The contract is in the implementation stage,” news agencies quoted Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying.
Russia initially agreed to send a large shipment of anti-ship Yakhont cruise missiles to Syria in 2007 under the terms of a controversial deal that was only disclosed by Serdyukov in September 2010.
The revelation infuriated both Israel and the United States and there had been speculation that Russia would decide to tear up the contract amid the current turmoil plaguing north Africa and the Middle East.
Israel — which is still technically in a state of war with Syria and fears its close ties with Iran — suspects that the shipment is ultimately aimed at supplying Hezbollah militants in neighbouring Lebanon.
The disputed sale is believed to be worth at least $300 million and is meant to see Syria receive 72 cruise missiles in all.
Russia has not confirmed making any Yakhont deliveries to date and it remains unclear when the military intends to fulfil the agreement.
Serdyukov’s comments come amid Russian efforts to preserve its military supply line open to the Middle East despite the revolutions and social unrest currently shaking the region.
A source in the Russian arms exports industry said this week that the fall of the region’s regimes may see the country lose about $10 billion dollars in contracts.
Serdyukov himself confirmed that the unrest may force Russia to give up some of its Soviet-era clients in the region.
“There is a chance we might lose something,” the defence minister said on a visit on visit to Russia’s Pacific port city of Vladivostok.
“But I hope that the main weapons and military equipment agreements will be fulfilled,” Serdyukov said.
Russia’s sales to Syria have come under particularly close scrutiny because of fears that Moscow may be also be covertly assisting Damascus’ nascent nuclear programme.
The head of the country’s arms export corporation in October denied that Russia had also signed an agreement to supply Syria with its latest range of MiG-31 fighter jets.
But the same agency confirmed in May that Russia was in the process of supplying Syria with a less advanced fighter jet version — the Mig-29 — along with short-range air defence systems and various armoured vehicles.
Russia is the world’s second-largest arms exporter behind the United States and its sales are crucial to the country’s efforts to keep alive a creaking defence industry whose reforms have dragged on for years.
The military this week announced with some fanfare the start of a $650 billion rearmament drive that will add eight nuclear submarines and hundreds of warplanes to the under-equipped force by 2020.
Serdyukov said Saturday that Russia intended to arms its nuclear submarines with the high-tech Bulava long-range missiles whose deployment is being delayed by a series of embarrassing test failures.
But Russia’s last two Bulava launches were successful and Serdyukov said Saturday that the first new missiles would be dispatched to the country’s Pacific Fleet. – AFP
