Just prior to his Thursday departure to Russia, Syrian President Basher al-Assad told a Moscow newspaper that his country backs the Russian republic in its conflict with Georgia, and said he would consider deploying Russian-made Iskander missile systems in his country to counter the US missile shield in Europe.
When asked by an interviewer about the option of installing Russian missiles in Syrian territory, Assad said told the Russian newspaper Kommersant, “[i]n principle, yes. We have not thought of it yet. No such proposal has been received. In any case, all similar projects must be first studied by military experts. And when everything is decided, we will make an open and public announcement," the Syrian president said in an interview published Wednesday.
The Iskander missile is a far more advanced and lethal projectile than a Katyusha rocket or Scud missile. Having a range of 280km in its export version, the missile, if fired from Syria’s border at the Golan Heights, could hit most population centers in Israel. It can destroy critical civilian infrastructure facilities, such as roads, brides and large buildings; enemy rocket and missile equipment in the air or on the ground, including missile defense systems; and it can wreak havoc on civilian and military aircraft on the ground. It is a classified as a quasiballistic missile, a recent innovation allowing for a lower flight trajectory, making it much harder to predict where it will hit.
From the Russian side, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, when asked by reporters about his country’s plans to sell Iskander Missiles, the Pantsyr-S1 air defense missile system, the BUK-M1 surface-to-air medium-range missile system and other strategic and tactical arms to Syria, said: "We are ready to consider requests from the Syrian side on buying more arms.”
In Russia on Thursday, on his third visit there in as many years, Assad reiterated his support of Russia’s military action, this time directly to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the latter’s Black Sea residence. In the talks between the two countries, Syria is expected to discuss arms purchases from Russia. Although the meeting is officially an introduction between the Syrian leader and the new Russian president, the talks are expected to cover purchases of Russian arms, including anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems. FM Lavrov admitted that arms sales were part of Thursday's talks.
I want to express my support for the Russian position in [the breakaway regions of] Abkhazia and South Ossetia....We oppose attempts to tarnish Russia's position," Assad said to Medvedev. "We understand the essence of the Russian position and its military response. We believe Russia was responding to the Georgian provocation."
The talks come on the heels of claims by Russia that Israel has been one of the key suppliers of arms as well as military advisors to the Georgian republic, while leaders in the West wait for Russia to fulfill its pledge of withdrawing from Georgian territory. The talks between Syria, long considered an enemy of Israel and the West for the Damascus government's ties with Iran and its harboring of terrorist groups such as Hizbullah and Al-Qaeda, and Russia, which has alienated itself from NATO countries with its recent war against Georgia, are the latest in a half-century-old friendship between Moscow and hostile Arab regimes.
Syria was a client state of the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War, and most Syrian military equipment is Soviet-made.
The Qatari newspaper Al-Watan predicted that during the visit, Russia and Syria would sign new deals for the sale of advanced weapons, and quoted sources saying that Syria’s interest in the Russian-Georgian conflict escalated "following the surprising discoveries of the dangerous role Israel played in transferring weapons to Georgia and the involvement of Israeli Mossad in carrying out terror attacks against Russian citizens in South Ossetia and Abkhazia."
So far there has been no admission from the Israeli government of any military relationship with Georgia, nor has there been any evidence revealed to back up claims of Israeli-sponsored terrorism in the disputed Caucasus areas.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Ash-Sharq il-Awsat reported that the Syrian president is keen to see a wedge driven between Russia and the West over the conflict the Caucasus and said that Assad will try to exploit tensions between Moscow and the West in order to strengthen Russia’s military support for Damascus.
In fact, Assad, during his Thursday meeting with the Russians, urged Moscow to cut its ties with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Western world, according to the Arab news outlet. Assad reportedly told his hosts that Israel supplying military assistance to Georgia proved that it was time for Russia to sell arms to other countries in addition to Syria.
Assad’s request followed Russia’s announcement that it plans to sever ties with the Western alliance, urging it to follow through on its threats, which Russia apparently has: Thursday, NATO announced that Russia’s Defense Ministry has decided to “halt international military cooperation events between Russia and NATO countries until further instructions."
In Israel, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni responded to the prospect of a new network of Russian-made ballistic missiles strung out across Syria, which borders the Jewish state in the northeast, by urging Russia not to sell the missiles to Israel’s hostile neighbor. Said Livni: "It is a mutual interest of Russia, of Israel and of the pragmatic leaders and states in the region not to send long-range missiles to Syria."