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The Bill of Sale Appears
// But Russia Refuses to Acknowledge Hezbollah's Weapons as Its Own
Israel Worries that Russia will Follow the Path of the Soviet Union by Taking the Arab Side in the Near East
Yesterday evening, during a tour of the Near East, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Israel after a stop in Syria. The first issue confronting him at talks in Jerusalem was the Israelis' complaint that Russian arms are being funneled to the militant group Hezbollah. Kommersant has learned that a senior Israeli official on a visit to Moscow in the middle of August presented the Russian side with irrefutable evidence that Syria is giving Russian antitank weapons to the militants. Nevertheless, yesterday Lavrov let the Israelis know that Moscow had found the arguments unpersuasive.
According to information obtained by Kommersant from Israeli government sources, in the middle of August Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert placed a call to Russian President Vladimir Putin to inform him that members of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah were attacking Israel using modern antitank weapons manufactured in Russia and funneled to the militants by Syria. In particular, the conversation centered around the use by militants of 105-mm RPG-29 "Vampire" multi-use antitank grenade launchers and "Kornet" guided antitank rockets to take out more than ten Israeli tanks.
According to the Israeli prime minister, these weapons were passed to Hezbollah by Damascus despite repeated assurances from Moscow that they would not end up in the hands of militants. Mr. Olmert called on the Russian president to look into the situation in order to avert such incidents in the future. In reply, President Putin demanded proof that Syria was funneling arms to Hezbollah.
A delegation under Deputy General Director of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry Mark Sofer arrived in Moscow on August 18. The evidence that the delegation presented, say Kommersant's Israeli sources, was exhaustive. It turns out that, during operations on the ground in southern Lebanon, Israeli soldiers managed to seize caches of Russian-made antitank weapons. Invoices in the boxes of weapons confirmed their origin: the grenade launchers and rockets had been recently delivered to Syria by Russia.
Nevertheless, on August 25 Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov announced to journalists in Magadan, Russia that Israeli had not presented Russia with proof that Hezbollah had used Russian antitank rockets and grenade launchers. "Reports that Hezbollah is armed with Russian "Kornet" antitank weaponry are complete nonsense. No evidence that Hezbollah possess such weapons has been presented to us," said Ivanov. "With regard to the handheld antitank grenade launchers that the media claims are being used in Lebanon, calling them modern weaponry is simply ridiculous. I myself shot such weapons back when I was 19 years old," he said. "I wish to note that all the weaponry shipped abroad by the Soviet Union is now being called Russian. As such, questions of the national origin of such weapons should be treated extremely carefully."
According to Kommersant's sources, the comments were followed immediately by a phone call from the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry to its Russian counterpart in Moscow. The Israelis were dumbfounded that Russian officials could make such statements after all of the evidence that they had presented. The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry promised to look into the matter.
But the Israeli side was even more surprised by Lavrov's comment yesterday, in which he acted as though Syria's transfer of weapons to Hezbollah had not yet been proven. "If these facts are laid out on the table and if we are given to understand that Russia can help in the investigation in some manner, then we will do that," the Russian foreign affairs minister told journalists in Lebanon. "Discussions concerning the supply of weapons to Hezbollah by other countries have been going on for a long time. We unambiguously advocate that any facts supporting such an assertion be presented to us and to the international community." He did, however, add that "in every contract that complies with international laws, it is stipulated that the further transfer of the delivered technology or technical equipment to a third party is forbidden" and that "when we are presented with concrete facts testifying that these contracts are being broken, we investigate the situation."
From Lavrov's words, it follows that the Russian side is no longer so decisively denying that Russian antitank weapons were given to Hezbollah, but that it still considers the fact unproven.
In Israel, the issue of the weapons is looked at from a variety of angles. "Having put weapons into the hands of irresponsible authorities, the Russians have, in essence, committed the worst crime of all," a senior military source told Kommersant. However, other, less categorical opinions abound. "I don't think that the Russian authorities intentionally want to help those who are fighting against us," believes Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, the former chief of the Israeli Army Department of Intelligence Analysis.
In Israel it is understood that, from all appearances, Russia is currently attempting to recapture its former influence in the Near East by trying to take on its accustomed role of ally to the Arabs. It is being especially nudged in this direction by its weapons contracts with Arab countries. It is in Israel's interests, however, that Russia be restrained to the role of a neutral participant in the resolution of the conflict in the Near East.
Israel had a chance to cater to Moscow's pride. At the beginning of this week, several Arab airlines announced that they intended to ignore the Israeli blockade and enter Lebanon's airspace without Israeli permission. On Wednesday this announcement was refashioned into an ultimatum that will expire in 48 hours. The last hours before the deadline expires were supposed to coincide with time set aside for talks between the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister and the Israeli leadership.
If Lavrov had succeeded in convincing Israel to lift the blockade, besides reflecting flatteringly on Russia's image, that would have been one of the most substantial achievements of Russian diplomacy in the Near East in recent memory. However, Moscow failed to win any diplomatic laurel wreaths. On Wednesday evening, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped into the game and, with the support of UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, succeeded in convincing Israel to raise the blockade in exchange for guarantees from the US and the United Nations that peacekeepers from Germany and Italy will conduct inspections of all transports arriving in Lebanon. The meeting between Prime Minister Olmert and Sergey Lavrov started exactly an hour after the two-month-long blockade had been lifted.
However, after the scandal over the weapons, Moscow was hard put to hope for any presents from the Israeli side. This is all the more true since both sides have plenty of reasons for mutual mistrust. On the evening of Lavrov's visit, he made a comment that grated on Israeli ears: according to him, in Moscow's eyes Hezbollah is not a terrorist group, but rather a legal political force within Lebanon. It is hardly likely that anyone agrees with that approach in Israel, where it is demanded that any contact with the Shiite radicals, especially recognition of their legitimacy, be contingent upon disarming of the militants in compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 08, 2006
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