"A top Russian official confirmed the existence of a contract for the supply of MiG-31 fighter jets to Syria but said work on the planes had been frozen, the daily Kommersant reported on Thursday.
"A few years ago, two contracts were signed: one for (the supply to Syria of) MiG-29s and one for MiG-31s," the head of Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, Alexei Fedorov, told the paper.
"Consultations on this contract are now ongoing, so its future is unclear.".....
It cited sources close to the arms exporter in May saying the supplies of the planes had been frozen under pressure from Israel over fears the weapon sales could offset the balance of power in the region. According to a a government official cited by Kommersant, the contract had been suspended after Damascus could no longer afford the planes.
In 2005, Moscow forgave 70 percent of Syria's total debt of 13.4 billion dollars.
United Aircraft chief Federov nevertheless told the paper the Russian planemaker was counting on completing contracts, as production at its factories has slumped amid the global financial crisis. "Negotiations are ongoing, I hope that in the end the contracts will be realized. We put a lot of hope in it stabilizing the situation in Nizhny Novgorod," he was quoted as saying.
2 comments:
There is no "balance of power" between Israel and Syria. What exists is a huge imbalance of power. What Israel fears is that the power relationship might become "balanced." Goes for Iran too, not to mention Lebanon. That some other country might actually become stronger than Israel is not remotely on the horizon. Anything even approaching equality is what Israel is trying to prevent.
Yeah, sure, we all know this, but words have meaning, and our consistent misuse of words affects the clarity of our thinking.
Correct William, also would think that Russia wouldn't be to concerned about Israel's concerns after Israel gave support to Georgia during the war there.
Also seems like both Syria and Venezuela are politically calling for the same thing as Putin (a multilateral world with no one empire calling the shots.)
Seems the Russian arms trade is booming what with the possible sale of these MiG's, the previous post talking about the SA-24's and the mysterious story last few weeks of the hijacked Russian ship carrying "timber".
Looks like Russia is pouring weaponry into the Middle East. For what end? who knows. Only thing I know is that I have seen a large increase in articles about Middle Eastern countries buying weaponry all of a sudden.
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