Israel asks Putin to scrap missile sale to Damascus
JERUSALEM, Jan 13: Israel asked Russia on Thursday to cancel a reported deal to sell missiles to its foe Syria, while striving to avert a deterioration in vital ties with Moscow.
"We spoke to the Russians and we asked them to scrap this contract," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told reporters. "Syria is a country that supports terrorism and continually transfers weapons to Hezbollah," he said, referring to the radical Lebanese Shia group. "The entire world is acting to isolate Syria because of its support to terrorism."
A high-ranking official had said earlier that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon sent Russian President Vladimir Putin a message asking him to stop the reported deal. "The prime minister sent a message to the Russian president to explain that this sale could be a threat to Israel and that these missiles risked ending up in the hands of Hezbollah and other Damascus-based terrorist organizations," the Israeli official said on condition of anonymity.
But a top Russian lawmaker on Thursday completely denied any such deal was on the cards, describing the reports as "a myth". "There has not been any contract signed," Mikhail Margelov, head of the upper house Federation Council's foreign affairs committee, was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti agency.
"It's as likely as announcing the sale of the Lenin ice-breaker to Bahrain," said Margelov, who is considered to be close to Putin. A report published on Thursday in the Russian newspaper Kommersant said Moscow was ready to ink a deal with Damascus for Iskander missiles. The mobile weapon has a range of 50-280 kilometres. If fired from Syria, they could hit almost any spot in Israel.
Yet according to sources in Israel, the security establishment is more concerned with the sale of Russia's latest-generation SA-18 missiles to Syria, which is technically at war with the Jewish state.
The shoulder-launched SA-18, also known as the "Igla", belongs to the category of so-called Man Portable Air Defence (Manpad) missiles, of which Russia is one of the chief producers. It weighs barely more than 10 kilograms, has a maximum range of six kilometres and can be used to shoot down planes and helicopters. -AFP
