RTFri, 20 Apr 2018 17:49 UTC
© Vladislav Belogrud / SputnikAn S-300PS air defense system
Following the US-led bombardment of Syria last week over an alleged chemical attack by Damascus, Russia says it has no reason to not supply its S-300 missile system to Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
Moscow agreed with its international partners about 10 years ago to not deliver the S-300 to Damascus.
"We took into consideration their argument that this would destabilize the situation, despite the missile systems being a purely defensive system," Lavrov said in an interview to RIA Novosti.
But given the latest spiraling of the crisis - in particular the use of the alleged Douma chemical attack as pre-text for striking Syria - things may take a U-turn. While around a decade ago, Moscow "heeded"the calls of its partners and put the deliveries on hold,
the Russian foreign minister said it now has "no such moral obligation."
In the wake of the US-led operation on Syria, Russia said it may consider sending supplies of S-300 missile systems to Damascus. Moscow believes it is "possible to return to mulling over the issue,
and not only with regard to Syria but also to other states as well,"Russian General Staff Spokesman General Sergey Rudskoy
stated at that time.
To repel the US-led attack, Syria deployed Soviet-made surface-to-air missile systems, including S-125 (NATO reporting name: SA-3 Goa), S-200 (SA-5 Gammon), 2K12 Kub (SA-6 Gainful) and Buk, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed a while later. Syria intercepted 71 out of over 103 cruise missiles and air-surface missiles launched at civilian and military targets, the MoD said, adding that Russian air defense units stationed in Syria were not involved in repelling the attack.
S-300 surface-to-air missile systems (NATO reporting name: SA-10 Grumble) were developed in the Soviet Union to target aircraft and cruise missiles. Since 2007, Russia has been replacing older S-300 batteries with the more sophisticated S-400s.
Comment: And who, pray tell, is this primarily directed against? Israel. Syrian S-300s will mean Israel will no longer be able to violate Syrian airspace or even fire missiles from across the border. And if there's one thing Israel hates, it is not being able to unilaterally attack its neighbors:
Israeli Defense Minister Lieberman claims right of 'total freedom of action' in Syrian airspaceSeveral cargo ships that
arrived to Syria's Tartus from Russia were unloaded under the guise of smokescreen.
Several cargo ships entered the Syrian port of Tartus, where the Russian naval base is located. It is believed that the vessels have arrived from the Russian port of Novorossiysk, but nothing is known about the cargo that the ships are carrying on board, news.com.au reports with reference to sources in Syria.
It was said that the ships were unloaded secretly, under the guise of a smokescreen. In addition, there was special gas sprayed in the unloading area of the port to jam satellite and UAV tracking systems.
The Russian ships may have delivered military hardware to Syria, for example, S-300 air defense systems and other arms. Russia promised to supply air defenses complexes to the Syrian government after the recent missile attack that the Western coalition conducted on the country on April 14.
See also:
Russian General Staff: Russia mulls supplying S-300 missile systems to Syria after US-led strikes
Pravda want you to think something special has been delivered with this B.S article. Hes confirming that they could, so that makes it clear then, i confirm we may or we may not in other words hes bluffing . You could but you wont because old soviet era missiles were more than man enough to do the job of intercepting those shitty western missiles.
Believe it when i see it.