Will Putin sell missile defences to Iran? Russian President issues threat to route technology elsewhere if the West attacks Syria
- - Russian President said Congress could not decide to attack Syria without U.N. decision
- - Obama said world could not 'be silent' when faced with 'barbarism'
- - Putin questioned whether Syrian government troops should be held responsible
- - Russian leader implied the chemical attack came from among the rebels
- - Disappointed Obama cancelled meeting with him ahead of G20 summit
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Vladimir Putin yesterday issued a thinly-veiled threat to arm Iran with missile defences if the West attacks Syria.
The Russian leader said Moscow had provided elements of the S-300 military technology to Syria but had frozen further shipments, suggesting they could be routed elsewhere.
That was widely seen as a threat to revive a contract for delivery of the S-300s to Iran, which Russia cancelled several years ago under strong US and Israeli pressure.
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Warning the West: Putin sought to downplay the current chill in the U.S.-Russian relations and said that the two countries need to cooperate on a range of issues in the interests of global stability
Assisting the enemy: The U.S. says Russia has provided military support to Assad that has allowed him to cling to power during Syria's roughly 2-year-long civil war
Mr Putin’s intervention came ahead of a G20 summit he is hosting today in St Petersburg, in which he is expected to hold a difficult one-to-one meeting with David Cameron.
The S-300 system, which targets aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles, would make military attempts to stop Iran building a nuclear bomb all but impossible without a ground invasion.
Syria’s deputy foreign minister, Faisal Muqdad, said it would take ‘every measure’ if hit by a US-led military strike and would never give in, even if it led to ‘World War Three’.
But Mr Cameron told MPs there was a risk of a ‘Armageddon’ for the people of Syria if the use of chemical weapons went unpunished.
He suggested Labour and other opponents of military action were ‘letting down’ the people of Syria.
Confident: US President Barack Obama, who earlier this week met members of Congress in the Cabinet Room of the White House, said he thought a resolution paving the way for military intervention in Syria would be passed
Mr Putin suggested he might back intervention in the UN Security Council if it was proved ‘beyond doubt’ that President Assad ordered a gas attack that killed 1,500 people, including hundreds of children, last month.
But diplomatic sources said that despite ‘overwhelming’ evidence against Assad, Russia was considering publishing a dossier seeking to blame rebel forces trying to topple the regime for the attack.
Mr Putin said it was ‘too early’ to talk about what Russia would do if the US attacked Syria without UN backing, adding:
‘We have our ideas about what we will do and how we will do it in case the situation develops toward the use of force or otherwise. We have our plans.’
The Russian leader called the S-300 air defence missile system ‘a very efficient weapon’ and said Russia had a contract for its delivery to Syria.
United front: Obama speaks flanked by House leader of the Republicans, John Boehner - but many congressmen are still undecided
‘We have supplied some of the components, but the delivery hasn’t been completed,’ he said. ‘We have suspended it for now.
‘But if we see that steps are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world.’
In another significant escalation of tensions in the Middle East, Russia dispatched a large missile cruiser to the Mediterranean.
The cruiser, Moskva, will be joined by a destroyer from Russia’s Baltic fleet and a frigate from the Black Sea fleet, tasked with ‘protecting national interests’.
Mr Cameron insisted it would be ‘very perilous’ for the US to follow Britain’s example and step back from plans to hit Damascus in response to chemical weapons attacks, but he again told MPs that Britain will not take part in military action following last week’s Commons vote.
Proof: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has challenged the U.S. and France to prove he used chemical weapons
History: Russia has sent legislators to the U.S. before to try to persuade Congress about pending legislation
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