Syrian war, Russian missiles and international reaction
The current events began after the publication in a number of American mass media, in which it was stated that Russia intends to fulfill its obligations under the contract with Syria and will supply it with the C-2010 anti-aircraft missiles ordered in 300 during the coming months (probably line "P"). In addition, according to The Wall Street Journal, obtained from Israeli sources, official Damascus in recent weeks has transferred to Moscow part of the total cost of the complexes, about 900 million US dollars towards future deliveries of four C-300 batteries. In this regard, third countries, first of all Israel, express concern and want the deliveries not to take place.
A very interesting fact is that publications about the planned supply of anti-aircraft systems appeared just a few hours after the end of the official visit to Russia of the American Secretary of State J. Kerry. During the visit, among other things, the Syrian issue was also discussed. No progress in this regard has taken place, but the countries have officially agreed to organize an international conference, during which all interested states will have to discuss the situation in Syria, as well as develop common views on the problem. Nevertheless, this conference is only planned for the time being, and negotiations with the participation of the state secretary have already ended without any noticeable results.
Starting from the first weeks of the war in Syria, third countries regularly declared their intentions to participate in the settlement of the conflict and to fight international terrorism. However, peacekeeping methods and country plans are significantly different. Some states suggest negotiating everything, while others insist on the beginning of the intervention or, at least, military assistance to one of the parties to the Syrian conflict. Moreover, a few days ago a certain country inflicted aviation strike on a Syrian object. Damascus suspects Israel of this, but he does not comment on the bombing.
Especially interesting in this context is the announced Western media. news about the Israeli request. Allegedly, the leadership of this country turned to official Moscow with a demand not to send anti-aircraft missile systems it had ordered to Syria. Such information can be interpreted in different ways, but the conclusion suggests itself that Israel’s desire to bomb Syrian military facilities in the future without risk to equipment and pilots. This conclusion directly follows from the fact that the Syrian insurgents still do not have any aircraft, and all aircraft that can become targets for the C-300, serve in the air forces of third countries.
The leaders of the United States agree with Israel. Shortly after his visit to Russia, US Secretary of State J. Kerry expressed agreement with the official Jerusalem that the supply of anti-aircraft complexes to Syria could destabilize the situation. At the same time, Kerry emphasized that such a destabilizing factor in the form of rockets primarily concerns Israel. According to the US Secretary of State, Russia should not continue military-technical cooperation with Syria, since this could have negative consequences for the region as a whole. Statements by a US official are of great interest in light of the recent attack by a Syrian military facility. Statements and an attack together can be an allusion to the specific attitude of the United States and Israel to the Syrian problem and how to solve it.
What is Russia? Last Friday, British Prime Minister J. Cameron arrived in our country. The main topics of his talks with the Russian President V. Putin, as reported, were the situation in Syria and related international problems. It is worth noting that Cameron’s arrival in Russia became known literally a couple of days before the visit itself. Probably, the issues discussed were so important that the British Prime Minister urgently changed the schedule of his trips.
According to the newspaper Kommersant, during the talks J. Cameron and V. Putin again discussed a possible conference on the problems of Syria. At the same time, it was not possible to reach an agreement on the composition of the participants in this event. Obviously, for the most effective work of the conference, representatives of the Syrian rebels should also participate. However, the opponents of B. Assad and the current Syrian government are not a single structure like a political party, but a group of various organizations with different views and goals that are united only by hatred of the existing government. In this regard, this question remains open: who should represent the Syrian insurgents? The UK and Russia, according to Kommersant, have not yet come to a common opinion on this issue and so far they offer various options.
Putin and Cameron nevertheless came to the conclusion that such a conference would take place in the coming months or even weeks. However, the President of Russia warned the British Prime Minister about our country's plans regarding cooperation with Syria. According to Putin, the Syrian military will receive all the military equipment they ordered earlier. Thus, it can be assumed that in the near future, at the international level, another issue relating to the Syrian civil war - the Russian arms supply - will be seriously discussed. In the context of such a discussion, you can again recall Israeli and American statements about anti-aircraft missile systems. Probably, the Russian C-300 for Syria will become a kind of indicator, with the help of which it will be possible with a high probability to calculate supporters of solving the problem through international intervention.
Now such a development of events seems unlikely, but it cannot be excluded that the Russian leadership, following the results of a mass of lengthy negotiations, will favorably agree to stop supplying air defense systems to Syria. But to achieve such an agreement will be very, very difficult. In addition, under certain circumstances, any new negotiations on this issue may make the situation less and less convenient for foreign countries. The fact is that the delivery of missile systems can begin at any time. Moreover, according to the information of the WND agency, received from the intelligence of one of the Arab states, the Syrian military have already become the owners of a certain number of missiles, launchers and other machines of the C-300 complex. If this is true, then within a few days or, at most, weeks, the Syrian armed forces will be able to significantly strengthen their air defense.
Fortunately for Israel, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries that prefer to end the civil wars with open intervention, the WND information has not yet received confirmation from other sources. It turns out that the above-mentioned countries still have hope and time for further negotiations. Now Israel will be the first in the “queue” trying to convince Russia. A few days ago, the Prime Minister of this country, B. Netanyahu, and the Russian President, V. Putin, had already discussed some problems over the telephone. Now Netanyahu will personally visit Russia, where the discussion of the existing problems will continue. It is quite clear that one of the main topics of the negotiations will be the contract between Russia and Syria regarding the C-300 anti-aircraft missile systems. It is noteworthy that several days earlier, with reference to its sources in the government of Israel, the newspaper Haaretz reported, and then this information was confirmed by similar sources of ITAR-TASS.
Will the Israeli Prime Minister succeed in convincing the Russian president? Hardly. Arms shipments to Syria have good reasons. This country is our partner in the Middle East, and besides it needs help, which, as it turned out, only a few countries can provide, whose policies differ from British, American or Israeli. The only significant lever of pressure on Moscow could be sanctions or an embargo imposed on Syria. However, according to Russian officials, none of the Russian-Syrian contracts violates international agreements. In this regard, the delivery of ordered weapons and equipment will continue in the future, and when planning further actions, some Western countries will have to take into account new anti-aircraft missile systems. It is possible that it is thanks to these systems that in the foreseeable future civil war will indeed end in negotiations, and not intervention.
On the materials of the sites:
http://vz.ru/
http://online.wsj.com/
http://kommersant.ru/
http://wnd.com/
http://haaretz.com/
http://itar-tass.com/
http://newsru.com/
Information