Yaalon Warns Russia On S-300s

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon on Tuesday signaled that the IDF is prepared to strike shipments of advanced Russian weapons to Syria, in a rare implied threat to Moscow.

Yaalon issued his warning shortly after a top Russian official said his government reserves the right to provide Syria with state-of-the-art S-300 air defense missiles.

Israel has been lobbying Moscow to drop the sale, arguing the missiles would upset the balance of power in the region and could find their way into the hands of Hizbullah.

“As far as we are concerned, that is a threat,” Yaalon told reporters when asked about the S-300s.

“At this stage I can’t say there s an escalation. The shipments have not been sent on their way yet. And I hope that they will not be sent,” he said. But “if G-d forbid they do reach Syria, we will know what to do.”

In Moscow, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, wouldn’t say whether Russia has shipped any of the long-range S-300 air defense missile systems, but insisted that Moscow isn’t going to abandon the deal despite strong Western and Israeli criticism.

“We understand the concerns and signals sent to us from different capitals. We realize that many of our partners are concerned about the issue,” Ryabkov said. “We have no reason to revise our stance.”

He claimed the missiles could be a deterrent against foreign intervention in Syria and would not be used against Syrian rebels, who do not have an air force.

“We believe that such steps to a large extent help restrain some ‘hotheads’ considering a scenario to give an international dimension to this conflict,” he said.

This article appeared in print on page 27 of the May 29th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.