Posted on 01/12/2005 2:50:05 PM PST by anotherview
U.S. demands Russia cancel proposed missile sale to Syria
By Haaretz Service
An Iskander-E missile, which Russia plans to sell to Syria. (Archive)
The United States is demanding Russia cancel its proposed sale of missiles to Syria, warning that it will consider imposing sanctions against Moscow should the deal go ahead, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.
A State Department spokesperson made the administration's stance public a short time before Secretary of State Colin Powell met with Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that the administration is opposed to weapons sales to Damascus, and that its position was well known to Moscow.
Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov visited Israel on Wednesday and discussed with government officials a recent crisis between Moscow and Jerusalem over reported Russian plans to sell Syria missiles capable of striking targets within Israel.
The details of the crisis were reported Wednesday in the Moscow daily Kommersant.
Saltanov, who arrived in Israel on Tuesday, met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Vice Premier Shimon Peres and senior Foreign Ministry officials.
According to the report, the Iskander-E missile has a target radius capable of reaching nearly all of Israel, including the nuclear reactor site outside Dimona.
Only the southern Negev and Eilat would be out of range.
Israeli military officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have expressed concern that the missiles would get into the hands of Hezbollah and disrupt the military balance in the Middle East.
The Russian daily reported that Israel recalled its ambassador in Russia over the deal.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted to the publication Wednesday, and said there was no crisis in Israel-Russia relations.
Israel has briefed the American administration on the crisis in its relations with Russia. Israel did not ask the United States to intervene, even though the Americans have dealt with this matter in the past.
Consultations held by the political echelon in Jerusalem resulted in a decision to attempt to solve the matter through direct talks with Moscow, and not to get help from the U.S. for the time being.
Meanwhile, tension is mounting in Jerusalem ahead of Syrian President Bashar Assad's first visit to Moscow, on January 24. Assad will meet with President Vladimir Putin and discuss bilateral cooperation in various fields. Putin is scheduled to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush about a month later in Slovakia.
The Kommersant report was based on recent Haaretz accounts of a severe crisis in relations between the Sharon and Putin governments.
The Iskander is a relatively new weapons systems, having been developed in the 1990s. Two years ago, Damascus sought to purchase 18 of the systems, but the matter was delayed by final testing of the missile. The tests were completed in August.
Rumors of cause of crisis As reported in Haaretz last week, the crisis in Israeli-Russian relations was the focus of a special meeting that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon convened 10 days ago with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and the heads of the intelligence community. The meeting ended with the Foreign Ministry being assigned to take charge of reviewing the matter and suggesting ways of resolving the problem.
A first discussion took place early this week at the Foreign Ministry, with representatives of all relevant branches in attendance, but no recommendations have been submitted yet to the political echelon.
Political sources in Jerusalem Tuesday denied the Channel 2 news report that the reason for the diplomatic crisis is Putin's anger over alleged intervention in the Ukrainian elections by people in Israel, and their support for his political rivals. The political sources said the problem stemmed from something completely different which concerns Russia's conduct.
ping
Thank G-d for minor miracles. This is precisely the correct action by the Bush administration.
This is going to be interesting to watch.
Tickin', tickin'...
Sources: Syria hosted terror wedding
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, January 12, 2005 | Aaron Klein
Posted on 01/11/2005 11:05:56 PM PST by JohnHuang2
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1318979/posts
Likely, but this entire chain of events is the result of our support of Yurchenko, and that was not a correct action.
We got a totally unneeded crisis with Russia at the time when there are a plenty of other things that require attention.
Pinging back at ya.
I disagree. Our support of a free election in the Ukraine is a result of earlier Russian actions - namely, the Oil-for-Food graft and Russian support for Saddam in the UNSC. Don't fall into the "what did we do to make them hate us?" trap. That's how left-wingers think (or, more precisely, want you and I to think), and that's why Democrats have no clue about foreign policy. It's very self-centered to imagine that everything that happens is a result of something you do. Again that's a socialist tendency, to believe that man controls everything, and that everything is in reaction to his behavior.
No, our support of a Soros-sponsored candidate in a very divisive election. Both candidates cheated in their support areas, both have deep criminal connections, and the Soros issue really should have been something for Bush to think about.
Yurchenko, as one of his first moves, announced the withdrawal of the Ukranian troops from Iraq --- is this why we supported him?
Our incoming Secretary of State is a Russia expert. If we are threatening sanctions on her watch, Putin better believe it.
Likely, Condi will play hardball; and her new deputies are all with previous history of similar approach (Stratfor commented on this today.)
It is less clear if this is a game worth playing: we impose sanctions, but Russian missiles meanwhile defend Syria from both us and the Israelis, and also leak to Iraq, changing the situation there to the worse. (See Debka's article today.) Net result is that both Russia and US suffer, and we might get Cold War II after all.
Russia-Syria arms deal alarms Israel
Aljazeera ^ | 12 Jan 2005 | By Khalid Amayreh in the West Bank
Posted on 01/12/2005 2:35:58 PM PST by Cornpone
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1319492/posts
Likely that this is retaliation from Putin when he claimed that Israel backed Ukraine's Yuschenko.
oldest I've found:
Crisis in Israel-Russia Ties
Jpost ^
Posted on 01/12/2005 8:06:39 AM PST by Alex Marko
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1319205/posts
Well the push by Exxon for Khodorkovsky to sell off key Russian oil fields (and his subsequent arrest when he told Moscow to shove it) and State's demands that the sale go through, have already led to the abandonment of the Murmansk oil port project. That oil was to head to America, now it's heading to Japan, S.Korea and China. Mean while China is cornoring Canada, Iran, Sudan, Venezuela and several smaller producers. So our policy of diversifying away from ME oil is in total ruins, presently and he are once more at the tender hands of Opec who only two weeks ago said they were cutting production to spike the price back into the fifties.
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