By: Nilita Petrov –

MOSCOW — Three events came together independently to produce an intrigue that is hooking politicians and media in the Middle East. This is what happened.

Moscow hosted MVSV-2008, an international show of weapons and military equipment. Then King Abdullah II of Jordan visited the show, met with designers and producers and had a discussion with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. A few days previously, President Bashar Assad of Syria flew in for talks with Medvedev.

The press and television in Amman, Damascus and Tel Aviv have made much of the events, especially the Syrian visit.

MONEY SPINNERS — Russia wants to sell $8 billion of Russian arms in 2008. The latest clash with Georgia has set it up to achieve that target. The Image shows an RPG-7V2 grenade launcher on display at the recent MVSB 2008 international exhibition of weapons and military equipment at ExpoCentre in Moscow. (ITAR-TASS via Newscom)

Israeli media claimed Assad had arrived on a purchasing spree, and his main aim was to buy the Iskander-E tactical missile system, in addition to Pantsyr-S1 and Buk-M2 ground-to-air missile systems and Su-30, MiG-29SMT and MiG-31E fighters.

The Iskander missile had been promised to Damascus in 2001, and only a personal request by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to former President Vladimir Putin put a stop to its sale to Syria.

But now that Israel has helped to train Georgian commandos and equip the Georgian army that attacked South Ossetia, Moscow thinks it is within its rights to “repay the debt” and provide Damascus with the system, the media in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv said.

Yet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters during Assad’s visit that Moscow “is ready to supply Syria only with defensive weapons, ones that do not upset the balance of strength in the region.”

This means that Syria — as Moscow promised to Tel Aviv — will not get the Iskander system. Regarding ground- and air-based air defense units, including interceptor fighters, they are not considered offensive armaments and are exempt from Russian-Israeli agreements.

Military technical cooperation between Moscow and Damascus needs re-evaluating. Syria owes Russia $3 billion for weapons supplied to it, and this on top of Damascus’ $10 billion debt for armaments sold in Soviet times which Moscow forgave, incidentally, for a pledge to spend another $2 billion on arms purchases from Russia.

Contracts currently being negotiated include Pantsyr and Buk missile systems, as well as Sukhoi and MiG fighters, but not Iskander missiles. The parties are also discussing the expansion of a Russian naval maintenance base at the Syrian port of Tartus.

Any movement of Black Sea Fleet forces from Sevastopol to Syria, as some Middle East publications suggest is, of course, out of the question. But a supply and maintenance center for warships on missions in the Mediterranean will come in handy for Moscow. In the Soviet era, the Soviet Navy’s Fifth Mediterranean Squadron made full use of this port.

King Abdullah’s visit to Moscow did not produce as much excitement as the trip by Assad to Sochi, perhaps because problems between Jordan and Israel are not as serious as between Tel Aviv and Damascus. In the king’s visit, discussions mainly focused on military-technical cooperation between Moscow and Amman, rather than on Middle East issues. This cooperation is now on the rise, Medvedev said during the meeting.

“Our relations are making good headway. This is our third meeting in six months and that points to the intensity of our contacts and good-neighbor relations,” the president said, adding, “Trade between our countries grows steadily, although both countries would like to see it develop more quickly.”

Jordan lives up to these words. In recent years it has bought from Russia two Il-76MF military transport planes worth a combined $100 million, and six light multi-role Ka-226 helicopters (at an estimated cost of $25 million), which will be assembled in Jordan under license. The two countries have even set up a joint venture, Oboronprom Middle East, to assemble 15 to 20 Ka helicopters a year.

Plans are also underway to set up a joint venture for the production of RPG-32 Hashim multi-caliber grenade launchers. The launcher was developed by the Bazalt Moscow State Research and Production Enterprise at the suggestion of the king himself. It is designed to engage armored vehicles and defended gun posts from a distance of up to 700 meters with 72mm and 105mm grenades.

It will be produced in quantity both in Russia and in Jordan. Trial specimens have already been sent to Amman and were highly praised. A manufacturing license contract is expected to be signed soon. Jordan has received a special $350 million credit from Russia for this purpose, although the sum is also supposed to cover repairs and upgrading of weapons previously supplied to Amman.

Other equipment includes armored personnel carriers, fighting infantry vehicles, Kornet anti-tank missile systems, Igla ground-to-air missiles, and weapons for special operations — reconnaissance, sabotage and protection of the royal palace.

King Abdullah is a former commando. He is an arms expert, and his buying of Russia’s VSS silent sniper rifles and PSS silent pistols is good publicity for Russian arms-makers. It is not impossible that after his visit to Moscow, Amman will take delivery of Pantsyr-S1 ground-to-air missile systems, which are considered today among the most effective close-range air defense systems.

Russian weapons appeal not only to buyers in the Middle East. On Aug. 23, the Russian president sent a message to President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, raising the matter of military-technical cooperation between the two countries.

“Russia is interested above all in trade and economic cooperation between security-related agencies,” the Russian leader told his Nicaraguan counterpart. “Military-technical cooperation between us offers a promising future.”

This means that the military equipment once supplied to Nicaragua by the Soviet Union and which needs repairing, upgrading or replacing could be replaced with more advanced weapons, if Managua is willing.

And Managua is willing, as is clear from the close ties that exist between Ortega and Hugo Chavez. The Venezuelan leader is very pleased with Russian weapons.

The target mentioned at the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, of exporting $8 billion worth of Russian arms supplies in 2008, compared with $6.2 billion in 2007, does not seem too far-fetched.