RUSSIA has said it will supply the Syrian government with a sophisticated air defence system.
It comes after Moscow condemned a missile attack launched by the US, the UK and France earlier this month.
Colonel General Sergei Rudskoi said in a statement that Russia will provide Syria with “new missile defence systems soon”.
Col Gen Rudskoi did not specify the type of weapons, but his remarks follow reports in the Russian media that Moscow is considering selling its S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Syria.
Top Russian officials said earlier this month that Moscow may reconsider a pledge it gave a decade ago not to provide Syria with the S-300 system in light of the airstrikes on Syria earlier this month.
Meanwhile, Russian diplomats are to bring a group of Syrians to the international chemical weapons watchdog who the Russians claim were filmed in “staged videos” of the alleged chemical attack on the town of Douma earlier this month.
Russian Embassy spokesman Mikhail Sobolev revealed that about 15 Syrians will attend a meeting at the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) today to brief member states.
The OPCW, which has sent a team of inspectors to Syria to investigate the alleged attack, had no immediate comment.
The event is part of an ongoing clash of narratives between the West and Syria and its key ally Russia about the April 7 attack.
Opposition activists and emergency personnel in Douma say the attack was carried out by government forces and killed more than 40 people.
The US, France and Britain also blamed the Syrian Government, and launched punitive airstrikes a week after the attack. Russia’s Defence Ministry has accused the UK of direct involvement in staging video images of alleged victims, which the UK denies.
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