Olmert meets Medvedev over S-300s
Israel’s Prime Minister has met with the Russian president with hopes of dissuading him from selling Iran the S-300 defense system.
During the meeting at the Kremlin, President Dmitry Medvedev and the lame duck Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert discussed regional stability and economic cooperation.
Before departing for Russia, Olmert had told his cabinet that high on his agenda would be issues such as the Iran nuclear program and reports that Russia was planning to sell Syria and Iran advanced missiles.
However, according to a Haaretz report, his chances of persuading Medvedev from equipping Iran and Syria with defensive weapons were widely considered as unlikely.
Intelligence officials familiar with the capabilities of the S-300 say the surface-to-air system will effectively rule out an Israeli attack against Iran.
The advance version of the S-300 system, the S-300PMU1 (SA-20 Gargoyle), can intercept ballistic missiles and aircraft at low and high altitudes within a range of over 150 km.
Russian sources told Haaretz that Russia’s position would not change. They said Moscow would not sell any Middle Eastern state offensive arms that could create regional instability, but would consider any deal involving defensive weapons.
According to the daily, some Israeli sources believe that Russia may have already signed the deal to sell Iran and Syria the advanced missile systems.
Olmert, who left for a two-day visit to Moscow, met with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov right after landing.
During the meeting, the Russian foreign minister stressed that the Iranian nuclear issue had to be settled through political means.
"Following the road of force scenarios... can result in fanning up tension in regional and international relations," he said.
Washington, Tel Aviv and their allies accuse Tehran of seeking a nuclear bomb, regardless of the contrary findings of the UN nuclear watchdog, which in its September 15 report said that it had not found any ‘components of a nuclear weapon’ in Iran.
The UN body has conducted the most extensive investigation in its history on Iran’s nuclear dossier.
other links:
Moscow keen to up ties with IRI
Threats come from Washington not Iran
Russia says no to war, sanctions on Iran
Israel, US clash over Iran solution
