During his recent visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reported to have threatened to destroy Russia’s S-300 anti-aircraft systems if they attempt to deliver them to Syria.
Russian officials were reportedly “shocked by the audacity” of Netanyahu’s threats, but in the end Russia still says they are willing to deliver the purely defensive weaponry to Syria.
Though there are rumors of Russia being willing to temporarily delay such shipments, they are said to only be willing to do that if Western nations stop threatening Syria, and have also suggested they would accelerate the shipments if Israel keeps attacking Syria.
Secretary of State John Kerry insisted that the weapons pose a threat to Israel and that allowing Assad to have defensive arms “is totally wrong.” Israel has repeatedly attacked Syria in recent weeks, and expressed confidence that Syria wouldn’t dare retaliate.
At the same time, Israeli officials have expressed major concerns about Syria acquiring defensive systems that would make future attacks less convenient, and have threatened to sink Russian ships attempting to make such deliveries.
So the Russians are basically sh*tting their pants it´s that how you and western corporate media spin this story?
It was in fact mighty Vladimir that gave that paranoid crack pot NuttyYahoo a lesson that have kept him from doing anything stupid beside his usual whining, suggesting that Russia will defend it´s ally with an impressive amount of, defensive as well as offensive, fire-power gathered in the region. The US will of course do anything he orders them to short of starting a WW3 and that´s where we are going to be pretty soon. As Presiden Bashar Al Assad said in the Al-Manar interview, it is "israel" that is the problem. It´s always about the Zionist abomination. As soon as that extremely bloody colonial experiment is over and a democratic state for all it´s citizens no matter what race or etnicity is established, peace will prevail in the middle east.
They are a defensive weapon they cannot be used in an offensive manner, the ONLY way that they can be a threat to Israel is if Israel flies into Syria, as for sinking Russian Ships, Russia is not the little compliant state of the United States of America, I don't doubt Russia will retaliate if Israel attacks one of their ships, and if Europe sticks their nose in, Russia can always turn off the gas! Just remember that Russia changed its laws regarding attacks on Russian Citizens, because of the threats made by Israel in regards to the Iranian Nuclear power plant and associated facilities. An attack on Russian citizens is considered an Attack on Russia itself!
"They are a defensive weapon they cannot be used in an offensive manner"
That is not, strictly speaking, correct. They have a range of 93 kilometers, which means they could take down aircraft over most of northern Israel from within Syria (assuming there's good radar to use for targeting).
That doesn't mean that Israel and the US should get to decide whether or not Syria gets them, of course. It's not like either of those countries eschew weapons which can be used offensively across borders.
Didn't you used to be Admin/censor here?
I used to be, and still am, a comment moderator here. Antiwar.com doesn't have the power to censor. We can't prevent you from saying anything you want to say. We only get to decide whether or not you get to use our microphone to say it.
If they think that Russia would go the other way and sale S300 to china.., let israel just walk into syrian soil.., they better think again.., Russia would love for Israel to bomb the S300, so is the Iranians, so is the Lebanese, so is the Iraqi.., I am not sure about Saudis, UAE and others.., for know they all are working for that apartheid regime.
If Israel attempted to "sink Russian ships" the ENTIRE Israeli navy would be gone within days – just like Georgia's was. Bibi better not be stupid enough to make the same stupid mistake Saakashvili made, in the hope that the US military will spring to the rescue.
If anyone doubts this, just search the Israeli navy over at Wikipedia (3 corvettes, 10 missile boats, 4 Dolphin-class subs & 42 patrol boats). While it's large enough to handle the weak Arab countries surrounding it (even Hezbollah managed to disable one of their corvettes in 2006 with a Chinese missile) and to enforce a blockade of Gaza, it would not fare very well against a major power like Russia. The Israeli air force would be more problematic, but Russian destroyers carry the latest domestically upgraded versions of the S-300 units on deck
Israel is threatening Russia but it is afraid of Iran?? LOL
This is so surreal that I am laughing.
I should make it clear that I believe that there's virtually no chance that the Israeli's will attack a Russian transport of any sort. Bibi has been attempting to woo Russia through diplomacy, meaning, a ridiculous move like this would get a lot of Israeli personnel unnecessarily killed & would most certainly ruin him politically. He would almost certainly NOT receive any military assistance from the US military unless Russia attempted to destroy Israel entirely.
The Russians are overplaying their hand with the S-300 missile systems. Those systems need to be in place *before* Syria is further attacked in order to have any chance of making a difference. Taking 4 years to deliver 15 year-old previous-generation weapon systems is absurd. That's almost the entire time of Russia's participation in WW2. They don't even need to manufacture the missiles. The Russian army is phasing out older missiles in favor of their newer models, and they must have them in their arsenal. Why keep missiles where they're not needed when there's a hot war zone that needs them?
For comparison, in the 1991 Gulf war, the US flew Patriot missile batteries to countries that were being bombed by Iraq almost immediately. Just a few months ago, Turkey asked for Patriot misslies near its border with Syria even though they don't really need them, and got them in short order.
Using the S-300 as a diplomatic bargaining chip instead of deploying them renders them useless.
Even america would not dare to speak of destroying these defensive weapons much less threaten its destruction.
Bibi is a big baby. Throwing a fit to get his way. The spoil baby isn't used to the word 'no'.
One things for sure– this is going to make life interesting for all those relations Israeli immigrants from Russia left behind within Putin's reach.