Israel has alerted America about Russian plans to sell advanced ground-to-air missile systems to Syria.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Syria has been making payments on a 2010 agreement with Moscow to buy four missile batteries for £580 million, including a transaction this year through Russia’s foreign development bank.
Such weapons would significantly boost the regime’s ability to deter intervention in its civil war. The newspaper said the package included six launchers and 144 missiles, each with a range of 125 miles, with an initial shipment expected in the next three months.
US officials were analysing the information, according to the report, which comes after Moscow talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov were seen as a success, with the two pledging to work together to convene an international conference to find a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Mr Kerry said they would try to “bring both sides to the table”. Russia and the US have been on opposing sides throughout the two years of the conflict so far, in which the United Nations says more than 70,000 people have died.
Anti-regime activists said Syrian warplanes were pounding rebel positions in the north of the country today, around the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border, and in neighbouring Idlib province.
The activists, from the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said an air base outside Aleppo was being targeted after rebels stormed it on Sunday, while government planes and troops were involved in heavy clashes outside several army bases in Idlib.
