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January 27, 2005
For Putin, Cold War never ended: Russia, Syria sign agreement for major arms deal
Topics: Middle East News and PerspectivesFor Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Cold War has never ended.
Russian has in the past and continues today to try to use an increase in it's arms exports to fund it's efforts to boost it's global influence. And the arms exports always seem to be to countries that facilitate terror.
Not only is Russia still trying to enhance it's role in the Middle East to the detriment of potential peace in the region by upsetting the balance of power, Putin seems to harbor resentment of Israel as evidenced by another diplomatic affair hovering over the relations between Israel and Russia in which President Putin claims that Israeli officials aided Ukrainian opposition candidate Viktor Yuschenko on the campaign trail.
The recent track record of relations between Russia and Israel hasn't been a positive, while the relationship between Russia and Syria has been for the most part, quite cozy.
Novasti Jan 27 - ...This trip comes against the backdrop of growing pressure from Washington on Damascus. Meanwhile analysts believe that Russia is trying to enhance its role in the Middle East, while Syria is trying to use Russia as a counterweight to the US
(...) Vladimir Putin and Mr. Asad announced after talks yesterday that they had agreed to write off most Syrian debts that had accumulated since the Soviet period. The total Syrian debt is $13.4 billion and the sides agreed to write off 73%, or $9.7 billion. The remaining $3.7 billion will be repaid by installments. This money will be either channeled into the Syrian economy or used to buy various goods.
Syria Daily Jan 26 - Russian companies can participate in some Syrian pipeline and oil- and gas-production projects, said the public relations center of the Russian Industrial and Energy Ministry.
Novasti Jan 25 - RUSSIAN, SYRIAN PRESIDENTS TO SIGN DECLARATION ON DEEPENING FRIENDSHIP AND COOPERATION
Hyscience Jan 21 - Israel is fearing a double-cross by Moscow on arms deals that could make Syria a more serious strategic missile threat to the Jewish state, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem Jan 13 - Russia is denying reports that it is planning to sell advanced missile systems to Syria, but Israeli officials are alarmed the deal could threaten the balance of power in the region while the US is warning of sanctions if the sale goes through.
Aljazeera Jan 13 - The Israeli press has disclosed that the recently reported crisis between Russia and Israel was triggered by Russian plans to sell Syria medium-range missiles that could hit targets all over Israel.
Jerusalim Post Jan 12 - Crisis in Israel-Russia ties
And the Russian-Israeli crisis isn't new:
GlobalSecurity.org July 99 - RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER SERGEI STEPASHIN SAYS MOSCOW PLANS TO INCREASE ITS ARMS EXPORTS TO FUND ITS MILITARY AND BOOST ITS GLOBAL INFLUENCE. MR. STEPASHIN MADE THOSE COMMENTS DURING A MEETING OF THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENTS' DEFENSE COMMITTEE.
This brings us to where we are today, and for this we look at both Novasti and the World Tribune (full article below). Russia and Syria have signed an agreement that could pave the way for a major weapons deal - and that's not good news for the U.S., for Israel, or for peace in the Region.
World Tribune Jan 26
MOSCOW - Russia and Syria have signed an agreement that could pave the way for a major weapons deal.
The two countries signed a military cooperation agreement that would facilitate the sale of Russian weapons to Damascus. Moscow and Damascus also agreed to resolve the dispute over Syria's $13 billion debt to the former Soviet Union.
The agreement was signed in Moscow on Tuesday during the visit by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Officials said Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an accord that would enable Russia to resume major arms sales and upgrades for Syria's military.
"The two countries agree to
pursue traditional cooperation in the military-technical sphere in
keeping with their mutual interests and international obligations," the
Russian Itar-Tass news agency reported.
So far, neither Russia nor Syria
announced arms deals during Assad's visit, which began on Jan. 24. But
Assad did not rule out Syria's purchase of the SA-18 surface-to-air
short-range air defense systems.
"These are defensive weapons, air defense, to prevent aircraft from entering our airspace," Assad said. "If Israel is against us acquiring them, it's as if it was saying 'We want to attack Syria but we don't want them to protect themselves.'"
Officials said the main obstacle to a major Russian arms deal to Syria was an agreement to resolve its debt to Moscow. They said Russia agreed to forgive more than 70 percent of Syria's $13 billion.
"We have resolved the debt issue on mutually acceptable terms, which gives us the basis for long-term cooperation in the future," Putin said.
Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Moscow wrote off 73 percent of the Syrian debt. Kudrin said 40 percent of the remaining debt would be repaid over the next decade. Kudrin was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the rest of the debt could be repaid in Syrian products.
Officials said Assad was examining a range of Russian weapons. They included the Iskander-E long-range rocket, anti-tank missiles and the TOR-M1 anti-aircraft defense system.
Syria was said to have signed a $20 million deal for the SA-18 with Russia. But officials said the agreement has been suspended amid Israeli and U.S. opposition.
If the U.S. is ever to bring peace to the Middle East and stop Syria and Iran from funding terrorism, it is certain not to occur with the help of Russia! Notice that Russia is forgiving all of Syria's $13 billion debt, but I don't recall Russia jumping on the bandwagon to to the same for Iraq.
For a little more perspective, check out the Daily Times in Pakistan.
Posted by Hyscience at January 27, 2005 12:05 PM
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