(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada – September 4, 2013: 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.
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
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.
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