Russia under now curbs to deliver radars to Syria - expert
MOSCOW. June 15 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia did not supply new radar to Syria, but even if it does, it will not violate any international agreements, military expert Vladimir Kudelev told Interfax-AVN on Friday.
"Western media reports claiming that Russia has deployed a new radar facility on the Syrian border with Turkey should be taken in the context of propaganda backing for the United States and its allies' military intervention in Syria," said Kudelev, who is a leading researcher at the Arab Studies Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oriental Studies.
Kudelev was commenting on claims by Le Figaro which wrote, citing an anonymous source, that "the radar that Moscow installed this spring in Kesab near the Syrian-Turkish border allows the Assad regime to track the movement of Syrian opposition in this strategic region."
"The current reports about 'Russian radars' are apparently a 'sideways view' on Israeli media reports, alleging that Russia has urgently upgraded the radar on Mount Jabal al Harrah to guarantee a more effective warning, should military attacks be ventured against Syria, Iran and Hezbollah," Kudelev writes.
"According to some sources, the Soviet-made Duga (5HZ2) radar is meant here - a beyond-the-horizon early warning radar," he said.
"But even if Syria wanted to buy three advanced air-defense radars from Russia, no one has the right to forbid it from doing so, since purely defensive means are involved here, which do not breach the UN Security Council requirements or other international accords," the expert said.