Russia says it won’t sign new weapons contracts with Syria

7/9/2012
ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOSCOW  — A senior Russian official says that Moscow will not sign new weapons contracts with Syria until the situation there calms down.

Vyacheslav Dzirkaln, deputy chief of the Russian military and technical cooperation agency, told Russian news agencies on the sidelines of the Farnborough airshow south-west of London that Russia will continue, however, with previously agreed exports.

He said that so far Russia has been providing Syria’s army with spare parts and assistance in repairs of the weapons supplied earlier.

Syrian activists say that about 14,000 people have been killed in an uprising in the country since March 2011.

Dzirkaln said that Russia does not sell helicopters or fighter planes to Syria.