Russia ratchets up US tensions with arms sales to Iran and Venezuela

[MikeWB]

Russia ratchets up US tensions with arms sales to Iran and Venezuela

Iran caused anxiety in the West by testing four long and medium range missiles in the desert on July 9
Tony Halpin in Moscow
Russia snubbed its nose at the United States today by announcing plans to sell military equipment to both Iran and Venezuela.

The head of the state arms exporter said that Russia was negotiating to sell new anti-aircraft systems to Iran despite American objections.

"Contacts between our countries are continuing and we do not see any reason to suspend them," Anatoly Isaikin, general director of Rosoboronexport, told Ria-Novosti at an arms fair in South Africa.

Reports have circulated for some time that Russia is preparing to sell its S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Iran, offering greater protection against a possible US or Israeli attack on the Islamic republic's nuclear facilities. The missiles have a range of more than 150 kilometres and can intercept jets approaching at low altitudes.

Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, said that it was logical to conclude a lucrative contract with Iran "in the current situation, when the US and the West in general are stubbornly gearing toward a confrontation with Russia".

Russia has already delivered 29 Tor-M1 missile systems under a $700 million deal with Iran in 2005.

Sergei Chemezov, the head of state-owned Russian Technologies also disclosed that Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez wanted to buy anti-aircraft systems, armoured personnel carriers, and new SU-35 fighter jets when they come into production in 2010.

US plans to site an anti-missile shield in eastern Europe to deter surprise attacks from Iran have outraged Russia, which believes the system in Poland and the Czech Republic is aimed at weakening its defences.

Strains between Nato and Russia after the war in Georgia have also contributed to a sharp deterioration in relations.

Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, one of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's closest allies, has visited Venezuela and Cuba this week. Kommersant said that Russia was forming "alliance relations" with the two anti-American regimes as a response to US involvement in former Soviet republics.

Mr Sechin said that "military-technological cooperation" between Russia and Venezuela was increasing, adding that the two sides were also in talks on oil and shipbuilding projects.

President Chavez is expected to visit Moscow next week. Two Russian long-range strategic nuclear bombers landed in the Venezuelan capital Caracas last week, the first time they had visited the Latin American state.

The TU-160 Blackjack supersonic bombers took off last night for the return journey to Russia after completing their patrol mission along the South American coast, air force spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Vladimir Drik said.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, voiced concern at Russian bomber flights close to American shores last month and warned Moscow that it was playing a "dangerous game".

Mr Sechin travelled to Nicaragua yesterday as part of Russia's efforts to revive its influence on America's doorstep in Latin America. Nicaragua was the only state to join Russia in recognising the independence of Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and President Daniel Ortega is also due to visit Moscow soon.

[MikeWB]

Iran official says missiles can reach ships in Gulf
Thu Sep 18, 2008 12:18pm EDT
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A top adviser of Iran's supreme leader has warned that in the event of war all ships passing through the oil-rich Gulf region would be within the reach of Iran's missiles, a government newspaper reported on Thursday.

Iran, embroiled in a standoff with the West over its nuclear ambitions, has said it could respond to any military attack by closing the strait at the southern end of the Gulf through which about 40 percent of the world's traded oil passes.

The United States, whose naval Fifth Fleet is based in the Gulf state of Bahrain, has vowed to keep shipping lanes opened.

The West accuses Tehran of seeking to build nuclear warheads but Iran, the world's fourth largest oil producer, says its aim is to master technology to make electricity. Washington has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to end the row.

"At a time of war no ship can pass through the region of the Persian Gulf without being in the reach of the Revolutionary Guards' coast-to-sea missiles," Yahya Rahim-Safavi, a senior military adviser of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by the Iran daily as saying.

He said earlier this week that Khamenei had put the elite Guards in charge of defending the Gulf against any attacks and that they would not hesitate to "confront foreign forces".

The comments came amid persistent speculation about a possible U.S. or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Iran has dismissed reports of such an attack, but says it would respond by hitting U.S. interests and Israel if attacked.

Iran's air force and Revolutionary Guards this week held a "joint defensive exercise in preparation for a potential attack," the state Press TV station said on its web site, adding that dozens of fighter jets and other aircraft took part.

Quoting a Guards statement, it said "upgraded missile and anti-aircraft systems" had been tested during the war games.

On Sunday Iran will parade its Shahab missiles, Iranian media also reported. The Shahab 3 missile reportedly has a range that could reach Israel.

"By staging this parade, we are ready to tell the world ... that we are totally ready to defend our Islamic system and country," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the commander in charge of organizing the parade, as saying. The Sunday parade marks the start of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Alongside the regular army, Iran's Revolutionary Guards are viewed as guardians of the Islamic ruling system and have a separate command and their own air, sea and land units.

(Reporting by Zahra Hosseinian, writing by Fredrik Dahl, editing by Robert Hart)