Russia says no new arms delivery to Syria

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia will not deliver any new types of weapons or sign any military contracts with Syria until the situation there calms down, Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said on Monday, July 9, according to RIA Novosti.

“Russia, as well as other countries, is concerned by the situation in Syria,” he said. “We are not talking about new arms supplies to that country unless it stabilizes.”

He said in particular that Russia will not supply Yak-130 combat training aircraft to Syria until the situation there settles down.

Russia has signed a $550-million contract with Syria for the delivery of 36 Yak-130s.

The UN estimated in May that some 10,000 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based organization with a network of activists in Syria, revised the death toll to 16,500 on Monday. Of those, some 5,000 were government troops and army defectors, the group said.

June had been the bloodiest month of the conflict so far, with around 100 deaths every day, it said.