«Γιατί τόση φασαρία» απάντησε ουσιαστικά ο Ρώσος υπουργός Εξωτερικών,
Σεργκέι Λαβρόφ, σε ερωτήσεις που δέχτηκε όσον αφορά το θέμα της παράδοσης των S-300 στην Συρία και ανέπτυξε
την επιχειρηματολογία του βασιζόμενος στα τέσσερα πιο κάτω σημεία:
1. Σε περίπτωση που η Ρωσία αθετήσει την συμφωνία της με τον
Άσαντ και δεν παραδώσει το αντιπυραυλικό/αντιαεροπορικό σύστημα S-300, αυτομάτως πλήττεται το
κύρος της.
2. Η Ρωσία ουδέποτε έκανε κάποια μυστική συμφωνία με τον Άσαντ.
3. Οι S-300
είναι αμυντικό πυραυλικό σύστημα και όχι επιθετικό.
4. Η συγκεκριμένη πώληση δεν παραβαίνει τους όρους του Διεθνούς
Δικαίου ή τους αυστηρούς εσωτερικούς όρους της Ρωσίας περί πώλησης εξοπλιστικών
συστημάτων.
Σύμφωνα με τον Ισραηλινό έμπειρο Αξιωματούχο Amos Yadlin, η Ρωσία δεν θα στείλει τελικά τους S-300 στην Συρία, ωστόσο η στάση της στο θέμα με τους S-300 είναι
έμμεση απάντηση προς τις ΗΠΑ:
«Χάσαμε την Αίγυπτο, πήρατε το Ιράκ, πήρατε τη
Λιβύη, δεν πρόκειται να αγγίξετε την Συρία».
Sergey
Lavrov says he can’t understand what all the fuss is about.
In
interviews in the last few days, the Russian foreign minister has asserted
Moscow’s obligation — never mind its right — to honor a contract to supply
President Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria with advanced S-300 air defense
batteries, state-of-the-art systems that can intercept fighter jets and cruise
missiles.
The
four-part reasoning Lavrov advances: (1) Russia’s arms sales credibility would
be shattered were it to renege on the deal; (2) Russia has never made any
secret of its various contracts with Assad; (3) these are defensive missile
systems, not offensive weapons; and (4) the sales are not in breach of
international law or Russia’s own ostensibly stringent arms sales regulations.
Lavrov, to
put it politely, is being disingenuous. His narrow legalistic reasoning
collapses in the face of a grisly reality in which his client, Bashar Assad,
has spent the past two years clinging to power by massacring his own people
(and the often extremely unsavory “rebel” forces who have joined the fight to
oust the Assad regime). Russia’s weapons sales to Assad are enabling that
ongoing bloodshed. And supplementing the regime’s arsenal with one of the
world’s most sophisticated air defense systems will make the butcher of
Damascus, who has remarkably managed to out-murder even his ruthless father,
more impregnable.
The wise
and experienced former head of IDF military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, remarked
over the weekend that, for all Lavrov’s bullish insistence that the S-300 sale
will go ahead, he is not convinced that Moscow will actually deliver the
missile batteries. Rather, in Yadlin’s assessment, the S-300s are just one
piece in the complex face-off over Syria now playing out between Moscow and
Washington.
By insistently maintaining their military support for Assad, said Yadlin, the Russians are saying to the Americans, “We lost Egypt; you took Iraq; and you took Libya. You’re not going to touch Syria.”
By insistently maintaining their military support for Assad, said Yadlin, the Russians are saying to the Americans, “We lost Egypt; you took Iraq; and you took Libya. You’re not going to touch Syria.”
And the
Americans, for their part, are publicly upbraiding the Russians for that
stance. On Friday, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin
Dempsey, slammed Moscow for strengthening Assad via the S-300 and other arms
sales. “It’s at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the
regime and prolong the suffering, so it’s ill-timed and very unfortunate,”
Dempsey told reporters at the Pentagon.
What we
have playing out over Syria, therefore, is a mini-confrontation between the
world’s only superpower, and its would-be reviving former superpower enemy.
Israel’s misfortune is to be caught up in the middle.
Unnamed
Israeli officials have issued conflicting statements in recent days — we want
Assad to stay; the sooner he falls the better; and all manner of formulations
in between. The fact is that Israel feels the same moral indignation as any
other observer at the sight of this man being permitted to kill this many of
his own people for this long. And Israel knows there is every possibility that
whoever succeeds him could be more brutal, less pragmatic, and more dangerous
to Israel.
Unsurprisingly,
therefore, Israel has done its utmost to stay out of the Syrian civil war, and
would like to continue to do so. The problem is that the route by which Iran
supplies weaponry to Hezbollah, its proxy anti-Israel militia, happens to run
via Syria. And with Assad’s complicity, Iran has turned Hezbollah into the
world’s best-armed terrorist organization with missiles that can hit, and cause
immense damage, to just about any target anywhere in Israel.
Twice this
month, and on previous occasions too, Israel has intercepted still more
advanced Iranian weaponry on its journey through Syria to south Lebanon. Those
hits in Syria have been carried out with high accuracy and low collateral
damage. No air defense system is impregnable, but the deployment of S-300s
would make such airstrikes far more complex.
With
Assad’s Syria protected beneath the S-300 umbrella, Iran would be emboldened in
its weapons transfers to Hezbollah, a semi-sovereign terror group avowedly
committed to Israel’s destruction. Israel would feel obliged to find other
means to prevent the improvement of Hezbollah’s already formidable military
capability. And tensions across the already unstable borders between Israel and
Syria, and Israel and Lebanon, would be ratcheted up another few deeply
worrying notches.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin, right, listens to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu during their meeting at the Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black
Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. (photo credit: AP/ Maxim
Shipenkov)
That’s why
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly told Russia’s President Vladimir
Putin, when they met for emergency talks about Syria last week, that the
delivery of S-300 batteries to Assad “is likely to draw us into a response, and
could send the region deteriorating into war.” Worryingly, Putin reportedly
responded by warning Netanyahu that any further Israeli airstrikes in Syria
could have the same result.
All of
which, as Sergey Lavrov knows full well, is what the fuss is about.
http://www.geopolitics.com.gr/2013/05/blog-post_4192.html
