WarSclerotic

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced Tuesday that the ‎delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Syria has ‎been completed.‎

Shoigu said Russia had delivered four S-‎‎300 launchers along with radars and support vehicles ‎to the Syrian military, and said it would take ‎three months to train Syrian personnel in how to operate ‎the system.‎

The move followed the Sept. 17 incident in ‎which Syrian air defenses trying to counter an ‎Israeli strike downed a Russian reconnaissance plane ‎over Latakia, and has sparked concerns in both Israel ‎and the United States.‎

Jerusalem and Washington both contend that giving ‎Syria S-300 surface-to-air missiles will embolden ‎Iran and escalate the Syrian civil war.‎

Shoigu insisted Tuesday that the S-300s would ‎improve the security of Russian military personnel in ‎Syria.‎

Israel expressed regret at the deaths of 15 Russian ‎‎crewmen in the incident, but said the Syrian ‎‎forces’ incompetence was at fault ‎‎and that Israel is compelled to continue taking action ‎‎against suspected deployments of Iranian-backed ‎‎forces across its northern border.‎

The Kremlin has rejected the Israeli Air Force’s ‎findings on the incident, saying the Russian plane was ‎shot down because of the presence of Israeli fighter jets ‎in Syrian airspace.‎

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to ‎continue the close security coordination between the ‎IDF and Russian forces in Syria, carried out via a ‎designated deconfliction channel.‎

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Heather ‎Nauert could not confirm reports that the S-300 missiles had ‎been delivered.‎

‎”I cannot confirm that that is accurate. I hope that ‎they did not,” she told a press briefing. “That ‎would be, I think, sort of a serious escalation in ‎concerns and issues going on in Syria.” ‎

A senior Israeli official said Sunday that Syria’s ‎possession of the S-300 posed a “complex challenge” ‎and that Israel was working on ways to prevent ‎this from becoming a major threat to the ‎country’s security.‎

‎”We are dealing with the [decision] in different ‎ways, not necessarily by preventing shipments of the ‎air defense system,” he told local media. ‎

He said he believed that Russian President ‎Vladimir Putin “understands that the Middle East ‎playing field is very large,” and indicated that Israel ‎reserves the right to protect itself and that it has ‎the support of the United States.‎

Also on Tuesday, the U.S. envoy to NATO said ‎Russia must halt its covert development of a banned ‎cruise missile system or the United States would seek ‎to destroy it before it becomes operational. ‎

The United States believes Russia is developing a ‎ground-launched system in breach of a Cold War ‎treaty that could allow Russia to launch a nuclear ‎strike on Europe at short notice, but Moscow has ‎consistently denied any such violation.‎

U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kay Bailey Hutchison said ‎Washington remains committed to a diplomatic ‎solution but is prepared to consider a military ‎strike if the development of the medium-range system ‎continues.‎

‎”At that point, we would be looking at the ‎capability to take out a [Russian] missile that ‎could hit any of our countries,” Hutchison said. ‎

‎”Countermeasures [by the United States] would be to ‎take out the missiles that are in development by ‎Russia in violation of the treaty. They ‎are on notice.”‎

She later clarified in a tweet that she was not ‎talking about a pre-emptive strike against Russia. ‎

‎”My point: Russia needs to return to INF Treaty ‎compliance or we will need to match its capabilities ‎to protect U.S. and NATO interests. The current ‎situation, with Russia in blatant violation, is ‎untenable.”‎

In Washington, Nauert said the United States had for ‎some time argued that Moscow was not in compliance ‎with the treaty.‎

‎”What Ambassador Hutchison was talking about was ‎improving overall defense and deterrence posture. ‎The United States is committed to upholding its arms ‎control obligations and expects Russia to do the ‎very same thing,” she said, adding that the U.S. was ‎discussing the issue with its allies.‎

The Russian Foreign Ministry said such ‎statements are dangerous and that it would provide ‎detailed answers to Washington.‎

‎”It seems that people who make such statements do ‎not realize the level of their responsibility and ‎the danger of aggressive rhetoric,” TASS news agency ‎quoted spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.