Moscow, Damascus deny determination to finalize missiles deal

1/25/2005

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied in an interview published before his visit to Moscow on Monday the existence of any deal to buy Russian missiles.

Al-Assad added that "the Russian defense minister confirmed that such a deal does not exist" and thereby he answered the question.

However, a senior Israeli official had stressed that the American pressures pushed Russia to reconsider selling missiles to Damascus during this visit, following the tension in the Israeli- Russian relations earlier this month because of these missiles.

Israel called for the abrogation of this deal of fears that such anti plane missiles will fall in the hands of fighters of the Lebanese Hizbullah party which is accused of being supported by Damascus.

The Israeli daily Haartez said that the Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed for the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon in a telephone call last week that he will not sign any contract to sell anti plane missiles ( S. A. 18) during al-Assad's visit to Moscow.

Worthy mentioning that Sharon who is of a Russian origin visited Moscow three times since he assumed his post in 2001, during which he asked Putin to stand against the Iranian nuclear program and to pressure Damascus to give up support for the Lebanese and Palestinian fighters.

Worthy mentioning that Russian- Israeli relations have been improved since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991 and in particular after the migration of one million Jews from Russia to Israel. In addition Moscow provides Israel with large amounts of crude oil. During the Cold war era, Damascus was the main ally for Moscow in the Middle East.