Syrian Army Chief Mulls Russian Arms Purchases

MILPLEX

Photo of a Kornet E laser guided anti-tank missile.

Moscow (AFP) Sep 29, 2005
The Syrian army's chief-of-staff General Ali Habib left Russia Thursday after a four-day visit aimed at upgrading his country's weapons arsenal and strengthening defence cooperation between Moscow and Damascus.

Habib met Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov on Wednesday to discuss "maintenance and modernisation of Syrian military equipment by Russian experts, the training of Syrian military in Russian military academies and potential purchases of Russian weapons," a Russian defence ministry statement said.

The Syrian general agreed to buy ammunition and increase the number of Syrian servicemen studying in Russia from 30 to more than 50, Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian defence ministry official as saying.

The Syrian general on Tuesday also visited a weapons factory specialising in high-precision anti-tank rockets in Tula region south of Moscow on Tuesday.

The factory is Russia's seventh largest arms exporter and produces small arms, "active armoured" systems and Kornet-E anti-tank missiles.

Habib, who met his Russian counterpart Yury Baluyevsky on Tuesday, was also scheduled to meet represenatives of Rosoboronexport, the official Russian body charged with arms exports.

Russia, one of Syria's main arms suppliers, sold short-range surface to air missiles to Damacus earlier this year, unleashing protests from Israel.

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MILPLEX

Mideast Watch: A Russian-Syrian Alliance?

Washington (UPI) Sep 05, 2005
Despite their many common interests (including opposition to American "hegemony" in general and the American-led intervention in next-door Iraq in particular), Russian-Syrian relations have not been particularly close during most of the Putin era.

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