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Russia Rejects U.S. Allegations on Arms Deliveries to Syria
- JRL 2012-106

TEHRAN/MOSCOW, June 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia dismissed on Wednesday claims by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that it was selling attack helicopters to Syria and accused the United States of double standards on Middle East arms deliveries.

"We are completing right now the implementation of contracts that were signed and paid for a long time ago," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists after talks in the Iranian capital of Tehran. "All these contracts concern exclusively anti-aircraft defense."

"We are not delivering to Syria, or anywhere else, items that could be used against peaceful demonstrators," Lavrov went on. "In this we differ from the United States, which regularly delivers riot control equipment to the region, including a recent delivery to a Persian Gulf country. But for some reason the Americans consider this to be fine."

The United States is the largest supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia and last Friday the White House said it would resume some military sales to Bahrain, which has seen more than a year of protests against the rulers of the tiny kingdom.

Clinton told a forum in Washington on Tuesday that Moscow's repeated assurances that the weapons it continues to supply to Syria could not be used to attack protesters in the Middle East country "patently untrue."

"We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria," she added, without giving further details.

Clinton also warned that such supplies would "escalate the conflict quite dramatically."

"We know that the Assad regime is using helicopter gunships against their own people," Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby said later. He also said, however, that he had no information on a new shipment of attack helicopters from Russia to Syria.

Russia ­ along with China ­ has twice vetoed UN resolutions against Damascus over what it says is a pro-rebel bias. Moscow has, however, fully backed UN envoy Kofi Annan's faltering peace plan for Syria.

And the Kremlin has consistently denied its arms deliveries to Syria could be used by pro-Assad forces to attack protesters.

"We are not supplying the Syrian government with arms that even an overwrought imagination could suppose are being used against peaceful protesters," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week.

Syria is one of Russia's major weapons clients, and Moscow has opposed proposals for an arms embargo on Damascus, saying this would give rebel forces an unfair advantage in the conflict.

And the deputy head of Russia's Rosoboroneksport state arms dealer, Igor Sevastyanov, said on Tuesday that Moscow would continue to supply arms to Syria while its deliveries remained within the framework of international law. He also said the weaponry involved was for "defense" purposes only.

But Russian military experts suggested on Tuesday that Moscow may be repairing earlier-supplied helicopters for Syria, rather than providing Damascus with new models.

"There were large-scale deliveries of attack helicopters to Syria in the Soviet era," said Andrei Frolov, editor of the Arms Exports research journal. "The last deliveries of Russian helicopters took place at the start of the 1990s."

"There is no information about new contracts for the delivery of attack helicopters," he went on. "This might be a case of the repair or possible modernization of earlier delivered machines."

The editor of the Moscow Defense journal, Mikhail Barabanov, said the helicopters possibly being repaired in Russia might be Soviet-era "Mi-24 or Mi-17" models.

Clinton was answering a question on the Pentagon's purchase of Russian helicopters for the Afghan military ahead of a pull-out by U.S. troops.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta earlier this week calling Rosoboronexport "an enabler of mass murder in Syria" and called for sanctions against the company.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said Washington "understood" Cornyn's concerns, but said the helicopters involved were the best option to allow Afghan forces to "take on their own fights inside their own country."

Representatives of Human Rights First, a U.S.-based advocacy group, announced in late May that a Russian ship allegedly carrying weapons had docked at the Syrian port of Tartus, which hosts a Russian naval base.

The UN says at least 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

But Syria hit out on Wednesday at comments by U.N.'s peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, who said the crisis in the country had now descended into "civil war."

The Syria Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its forces were fighting armed groups responsible for "killings, kidnappings and other terrorist acts."

Keywords: Russia, Middle East, Syria - Russian News - Russia

TEHRAN/MOSCOW, June 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia dismissed on Wednesday claims by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that it was selling attack helicopters to Syria and accused the United States of double standards on Middle East arms deliveries.

"We are completing right now the implementation of contracts that were signed and paid for a long time ago," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists after talks in the Iranian capital of Tehran. "All these contracts concern exclusively anti-aircraft defense."

"We are not delivering to Syria, or anywhere else, items that could be used against peaceful demonstrators," Lavrov went on. "In this we differ from the United States, which regularly delivers riot control equipment to the region, including a recent delivery to a Persian Gulf country. But for some reason the Americans consider this to be fine."

The United States is the largest supplier of arms to Saudi Arabia and last Friday the White House said it would resume some military sales to Bahrain, which has seen more than a year of protests against the rulers of the tiny kingdom.

Clinton told a forum in Washington on Tuesday that Moscow's repeated assurances that the weapons it continues to supply to Syria could not be used to attack protesters in the Middle East country "patently untrue."

"We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria," she added, without giving further details.

Clinton also warned that such supplies would "escalate the conflict quite dramatically."

"We know that the Assad regime is using helicopter gunships against their own people," Pentagon spokesman Captain John Kirby said later. He also said, however, that he had no information on a new shipment of attack helicopters from Russia to Syria.

Russia ­ along with China ­ has twice vetoed UN resolutions against Damascus over what it says is a pro-rebel bias. Moscow has, however, fully backed UN envoy Kofi Annan's faltering peace plan for Syria.

And the Kremlin has consistently denied its arms deliveries to Syria could be used by pro-Assad forces to attack protesters.

"We are not supplying the Syrian government with arms that even an overwrought imagination could suppose are being used against peaceful protesters," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last week.

Syria is one of Russia's major weapons clients, and Moscow has opposed proposals for an arms embargo on Damascus, saying this would give rebel forces an unfair advantage in the conflict.

And the deputy head of Russia's Rosoboroneksport state arms dealer, Igor Sevastyanov, said on Tuesday that Moscow would continue to supply arms to Syria while its deliveries remained within the framework of international law. He also said the weaponry involved was for "defense" purposes only.

But Russian military experts suggested on Tuesday that Moscow may be repairing earlier-supplied helicopters for Syria, rather than providing Damascus with new models.

"There were large-scale deliveries of attack helicopters to Syria in the Soviet era," said Andrei Frolov, editor of the Arms Exports research journal. "The last deliveries of Russian helicopters took place at the start of the 1990s."

"There is no information about new contracts for the delivery of attack helicopters," he went on. "This might be a case of the repair or possible modernization of earlier delivered machines."

The editor of the Moscow Defense journal, Mikhail Barabanov, said the helicopters possibly being repaired in Russia might be Soviet-era "Mi-24 or Mi-17" models.

Clinton was answering a question on the Pentagon's purchase of Russian helicopters for the Afghan military ahead of a pull-out by U.S. troops.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta earlier this week calling Rosoboronexport "an enabler of mass murder in Syria" and called for sanctions against the company.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said Washington "understood" Cornyn's concerns, but said the helicopters involved were the best option to allow Afghan forces to "take on their own fights inside their own country."

Representatives of Human Rights First, a U.S.-based advocacy group, announced in late May that a Russian ship allegedly carrying weapons had docked at the Syrian port of Tartus, which hosts a Russian naval base.

The UN says at least 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011.

But Syria hit out on Wednesday at comments by U.N.'s peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, who said the crisis in the country had now descended into "civil war."

The Syria Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its forces were fighting armed groups responsible for "killings, kidnappings and other terrorist acts."


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