Washington
Top diplomats of the United States and Germany made a terse warning Friday that Russia's arms supply for Syria risked the collapse of efforts to hold an international meeting scheduled for June to find a political settlement to the Syrian civil war and change the balance of power in the Middle East.
The warning came as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad suggested Thursday that the first shipment of S-300 advanced air defense missile systems was delivered to Damascus and the Russia's MiG aircraft manufacturer announced it planned to sign a fresh agreement to sell Syria at least ten MiG-29 M/M2 war planes.
"It is not helpful to have the S-300 transferred to the region while we are trying to organize this peace (conference) and create peace," US Secretary of State John F. Kerry told reporters at a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle after their meeting at the State Department in Washington DC.
"The weaponry that is being provided Assad whether it is an old contract or not, has a profoundly negative impact on the balance of interests and the stability of the region and it does put Israel at risk. It is not in our judgment responsible because of the size of the weapons, the nature of the weapons and what it does to the region in terms of Israel's security, so we hope that they will refrain from that in the interests of making this peace conference work."
Westerwelle urged Moscow not to jeopardize the planned international peace conference, saying the delivery of weapons to the Assad regime is "totally wrong" and that it would send a wrong message to the world and the region.
