Report: Saudi Arabia Wants Missiles for Syrian Rebels

إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية W460

Saudi Arabia plans to supply the Syrian opposition with anti-aircraft missiles to counter President Bashar Assad's air force, German news weekly Der Spiegel reported Sunday.

The article, citing a classified report received by the German foreign intelligence service and the German government last week, said Riyadh was looking at sending European-made Mistral-class MANPADS, or man-portable air-defense systems.

Der Spiegel noted the shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles can target low-flying aircraft including helicopters and had given mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan a decisive edge against Soviet troops in the 1980s.

Saudi Arabia is a key supporter of the Syrian rebels and has long advocated providing them with better weaponry.

Washington vowed last week to send military aid to rebel forces trying to unseat Assad after saying it had proof that the regime had crossed a "red line" by using chemical weapons on a small scale.

The European Union lifted an embargo on arming the Syrian opposition last month, paving the way for greater Western support for rebels in a civil war that has claimed 93,000 lives.

Comments 3
Thumb lebanon_first 16 June 2013, 16:16

here the sequence of events.
1-HA takes qseir with assad the dog.
2-The US and Russia who want a negotiated settlement that would oust both assad and nosra are not happy to see Assad the dog becoming too strong
3-The US tells its vassal king Abdallah: OK, go ahead, you can provide extra weaponry to your guys in syria. For its public consumption, Obama invents the excuse of sarin gas (which has been used 3 months ago)
4-king abdallah cuts short his vacation in morocco to personaly handle this affair, and starts planning on sending light anti aircraft missiles to syria's rebels.
5- expect new developments in aleppo's battle...

Missing greatpierro 16 June 2013, 18:49

dear lebanon first may I add:
6- saudi king is in a bras de fer with qatari prince who is arming the salafists rather than the syrian rebellion
7- Iran is sending revolutionary guards (by the way I was passing by the beirut's airport yesterday and saw an iranian air force transport plane taking off)
8- it's going to heat up real bad in the coming weeks
9- no lebanese governement will be formed leaving as such the terrain vide for Hizbullah to turn this country into a hisbuztan

Default-user-icon Truth (Guest) 16 June 2013, 17:24

If the iranians thought they could be the only ones arming and training the terrorist gang of Hizbollah, then they will learn at their expenses, soon, that the game is not so easy !