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January 13, 2005
Syria eager for missiles, experts say
Topics: Middle East News and PerspectivesWho said that the Cold War is over? It looks as though our friends, the Russians, are back to their old tricks and in deep with whatever is necessary to facilitate a continuence of instability in the Middle East. Although the Russians continue to deny complicity in any plans to ship missiles to Syria or aid Iran in the development of nuclear weapons technology there are rumors that these denials are less than truthful. Print media is covering the story and it is being covered from Israel to Moscow.
Jerusalem Post Jan 13
Since Syria has no missile development infrastructure, it is a buyer
of the weapons and is especially interested in accurate medium-range
missiles that can hit Israel, Israel Aircraft Industries missile
experts told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on
Wednesday.
Syria lacks a satellite program needed to develop the ballistic missiles, and it is not worthwhile for it to develop this capability, according to a review on the regional missile threat presented by two IAI officials, Uzi Rubin and Yair Ramati.
The committee held a session on the topic on Wednesday, amid the developing crisis between Israel and Russia on Moscow's supply of missiles to Syria.
According to the experts, it is not worthwhile for Syria to upgrade the Scud missiles it has in its possession.
Iran, on the other hand, is totally self-sufficient in missiles, and is making great strides with help from expert Russian missile engineers who are acting privately, the committee was told. Iran is trying to expand the range of its missiles. Read more.. -End Item
BBC News Jan 13
Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov has denied that any talks on selling missiles to Damascus have taken place.
The Russian Kommersant newspaper said that the missiles in question were of the Iskander-E type - an upgraded version of the Soviet Scud missiles. If deployed, these missiles can hit targets in most parts of Israeli territory. Read more... -End Item
Moscow Times Jan 13
Israel scrambled Wednesday to head off the sale of
Russian missiles to its sworn enemy Syria, which Tel Aviv accuses of
supporting Palestinian militants and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
A senior Israeli official told The Associated Press in Jerusalem that the planned sale had strained relations with Moscow and that negotiations were underway to head off any deal ahead of Syrian President Bashar Assad's landmark visit to Russia later this month.
"We had consultations over the past few days, and we hope to reach the necessary agreement," AP quoted Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom as saying. Read more... -End Item
Interestingly, the Moscow Times even names the type of missile that is not being discussed - the Iskander-E type scud missile. According to the Moscow Times, media in Jerusalem and Moscow have conflicting reports as to the exact type of missiles being sought by Damascus, but Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said any kind would be unacceptable. In the MT article named sources are referred to. Notice that again, we are talking about reports of exact types of missiles that are not being talked about. I guess I am not really writing about the missiles that are being written about either!
Posted by Hyscience at January 13, 2005 4:13 PM
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