S-300 exports to Damascus could help prevent foreign intervention in Syrian crisis - Russian diplomat
MOSCOW. May 28 (Interfax) - Russian deliveries of S-300 defensive surface-to-air missile systems to Damascus could help prevent any possible intervention by external forces in the Syrian conflict, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said at a press conference in Moscow.
"In our opinion, these deliveries play a stabilizing role. We believe that such steps will largely help stop certain hotheads from turning it into a possible international conflict, from considering a scenario that would make this conflict international with the involvement of external forces that are not averse to such ideas," he said.
"We are speaking about deliveries of defensive weapons to the government of this country with the aim of protecting facilities and contingents of soldiers," Ryabkov said.