JERUSALEM: Israel’s Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday that his country would attack Russian S-300 air defence systems in Syria if they were used against Israeli targets.

His remarks came a day after the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that Moscow could soon start to deliver S-300 systems to its ally Damascus, and cited a source as warning of “catastrophic” consequences if they were attacked.

“What’s important to us is that the defensive weapons the Russians are giving Syria won’t be used against us,” Lieberman told the news website Ynet.

“If they’re used against us, we’ll act against them.” Russia and Syria signed an accord in 2010 for the S-300 system but the missiles have not been delivered because of Israeli pressure, according to Kommersant.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this month that no decision had yet been taken on the S-300 missiles.

The Russians have deplo­yed the S-300 around their own Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast and the more advanced S-400 at their Hmeimim air base in western Syria.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2018