Sunday, August 19, 2007

Russia to Sell Arms to Syria (a.k.a., Iran)

I'd complain more about these Russian arms sales to Syria if we hadn't sold arms to Saudi Arabia. I think both we and the Russians, seperately or together, will come to regret these actions.

Of course, speculation is that Syria will turn around and give/sell at least some of the weapons to Iran, which would spell the second time Russia has sold particularly sensitive arms to a nation with which we had at least a chance to go to war (read, Iraq):

A spokesman for Russia's arms export agency Rosoboronexport, contacted by Agence France-Presse, declined to comment on the newspaper report.

The report acknowledged that the delivery of the weapons, the Pantsyr-S1E self-propelled short-range missile air defence system, was particularly sensitive in light of Israeli claims last year that Russian arms sold to Syria had ended up in the hands of militant group Hezbollah.

In May, the London-based arms specialist magazine Jane's Defence Weekly reported that Syria had agreed to send Iran at least 10 of the Pantsyr units.

It's the Cold War all over again, except this time there's a third participant that nobody wants to recognize: radical Islam.

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