Israel Seeks to Stop Missile Deal Between Russia and Syria, Officials Say By Steve Weizman Associated Press Writer Jan 12, 2005
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel is trying to halt a weapons deal under which Russia agreed to supply advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, fearing the missiles could fall into the hands of Lebanese guerrillas, Israeli officials said Wednesday. Israeli officials said the deal for the sale of the Igla SA-18s from Russia to Syria was signed several days ago. They are worried that the anti-aircraft missiles could be used by Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas, who have attacked Israel's northern border. The United States also could be concerned the missiles could be obtained by Iraqi insurgents, analysts said.
A deputy Russian foreign minister is in the region to discuss the matter, Israeli officials said on condition of anonymity.
Asked about the deal, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said: "We have close contacts with the Russians. We had consultations over the past few days, and we hope to reach the necessary agreement."
The press service of Russia's main arms export company, Rosoboronexport, said it had no information that Russia was planning such a sale. No one was immediately available for comment at the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Igla SA-18s are among the most sophisticated shoulder-held anti-aircraft missiles available at the moment. Because of their simplicity, light weight and a built-in training system, they also are an ideal weapon for militants, military analysts said.
"We have enough problems on the ground with Syria and we don't need more problems from the sky," Vice Premier Shimon Peres said.
Israeli officials were looking at several options for dealing with the arms sale, including involving Washington.
But officials said Israel could decide to allow the deal to go through rather than risk its bilateral relations with Russia, which it has been working to improve since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Syrian President Bashar Assad is due to visit Russia Jan. 24-28.
Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir denied a report by the Moscow-daily Kommersant that Israel had recalled its ambassador in response to the deal. The ambassador is in Israel but was to return to Moscow later Wednesday or Thursday, Meir said.
Israeli analyst Gerald Steinberg said the report came as a surprise because the Syrians have not had money to buy Russian weapons for several years.
"If this report is true, it is very problematic and will pose a challenge to Israeli military planners," Steinberg said.
Israeli media reports say Assad was furious when Israeli jets buzzed one of his palaces while he was in residence and is determined to beef up his country's air defenses.
Paul Beaver, a London-based defense analyst, said Russia has been upgrading Syrian military equipment for years but has not sold the Arab country new arms since 1990.
Beaver described the SA-18 as the missile that evolved from the Russian shoulder-held Sam-7, which was widely used during the Vietnam War. The SA-18 gives the user more time to fire the missile, has a greater range and can target any part of an aircraft, not just the heat-emitting rear section.
The SA-18 also can cut through many Western defenses. For example, it is resistant to most flares, which are used by Western armies to put anti-aircraft missiles off track. The sophisticated missiles cost about $250,000 each, Beaver said.
Israeli-Russian relations have improved greatly in the past 15 years.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is of Russian descent, has visited Moscow three times since taking office in 2001. He repeatedly has asked President Vladimir Putin to act against what Israel contends is a covert Iranian nuclear arms program and to pressure Syria to rein in its Lebanese and Palestinian proxies.
In September, Israeli agents carried out a car bombing in Damascus, Syria, that killed a senior activist of the radical Palestinian Hamas movement.
In October 2003, Israeli warplanes bombed a Syrian base of the Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian militant group, in retaliation for a suicide bombing that killed 19 people at a restaurant in Haifa.
In terms of a multilateral approach, Russia has been pushing for a "Eurasian Alliance of Natural Gas Producers" that would include Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It has been dubbed a "Central Asian OPEC" that would aim at "cooperation in energy policy and measures to defend interests of natural gas producers".
When you consider that Bush’s strategy is to break OPEC’s stranglehold on oil markets and that natural gas is soon to supplant oil as the fossil fuel of choice and that Putin is setting up an OPEC for natural gas, well…it looks like Bush is going to have to become even more aggressive in Russia’s near abroad.
One might rightfully surmise that Bush will attempt to stop the formation of a gas producers' ‘Central Asian OPEC’.
-Am
Reference: This is in direct conflict with the BUSH strategy which is to control Iraq, break OPEC's stranglehold on oil markets, force crude prices down and thus deny Islamist terrorism access to petro-financing. The BUSH Administration is not just going after Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction. It is going after OPEC and the global financial infrastructure that supports terrorism, says Giridhar Srinivasan. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/bline/2002/09/03/stories/2002090300060800.htm
MOSCOW, April 25 (RIA Novosti) - This week Gazprom's board will discuss production plans for 2005. A key issue will be the production and sale of liquefied natural gas, which is gradually replacing pipeline natural gas.
The Russian gas giant intends to break into the American market with LNG. This week a Gazprom delegation wrapped up a visit to United States, which had been made on the invitation from U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and devoted to cooperation in LNG production technologies and supplies to the U.S.
America is one of the most promising LNG markets. Its own gas production does not meet the country's demand and imports need to be increased significantly. Since 2002, LNG imports to the U.S. have increased more than twofold and last year came to about 18 billion cubic meters. The U.S. Energy Department forecasts that by 2010 they may grow by several times, amounting to 67 million tons in 2015 and 85 million tons in 2020. Today, America has four LNG terminals with a total annual capacity of 45.8 billion cubic meters. There are plans to build another ten terminals on the East and West coasts, and annual capacity may reach 140 billion cubic meters of LNG.
Gazprom is aggressively targeting America and plans to launch swap LNG supplies to the US market in 2005: supplies of Russian pipeline gas to Europe will be exchanged for LNG supplied by American companies in the U.S. After 2010, it intends to start direct LNG deliveries to America under long-term contracts.
American energy firms have displayed great interest in LNG cooperation with Gazprom. The Russian monopoly has already signed memorandums of understanding with ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. In compliance with them, the companies will study opportunities for Gazprom's participation in LNG regasification projects in North America, marketing gas supplies to the U.S., exchange operations involving North American gas pipelines, and the companies playing a role in LNG production in Russia. Apart from the American companies, Gazprom has also signed memorandums with Statoil, Hydro and Petro-Canada.
Gazprom has stepped up its efforts to identify sales markets after it starts developing the Shtokman gas condensate field on the Barents Sea shelf, which has reserves of about 3.2 trillion cubic meters. Gazprom experts have prepared a feasibility study on the pre-investment stage of a Shtokman LNG production project. It shows that gas from the field can be supplied to the U.S. at competitive prices. Within the next few months, it will make the final decision on the consortium to develop the field, which may include ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, as well as the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch/Shell, British Petroleum and Norway's Hydro and Statoil.
Gazprom is pursuing aggressive marketing because of the growing competition for the U.S. LNG market. A week before the Gazprom delegation visited America, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Natural Gas and Petroleum Technology James Slutz said at a Russian-American LNG seminar on April 12 that the market could not absorb all the LNG projects on offer. This means that Americans will choose the most efficient and profitable ones. After all, the choice is fairly wide. The main LNG exporters to the U.S. are currently Trinidad and Tobago, and Algeria. Yet the number of those willing to launch LNG supplies to America is growing fast. Producers in Venezuela, Peru, Nigeria, Angola, Egypt, Oman and Qatar have already announced plans to export LNG to the States. Australia recently said it also planned to become the main LNG supplier to America in the future.
The majority of Russian LNG projects (apart from Shtokman, there is Sakhalin, as well as projects on the Yamal Peninsula and in the Leningrad region) are obviously oriented toward only one consumer, America. Yet for all its promises, the U.S. market is competitive. You do not have to be an expert to suppose that, given the competitive environment, the global LNG market will have seen significant changes by the time most Russian projects are launched. First of all, LNG prices are expected to fall from the current $190-200 per 1,000 cubic meters as supplies grow and new facilities are built. Second, many large consumers, like the States, tend to diversify supplies. So LNG producers will have to make significant concessions when they sign new contracts or enter a new market.
Considering all the projects announced by oil and gas companies, Russia could export annually about 63 million tons of LNG since 2010. Even the growing U.S. market will obviously not be able to absorb this amount. Apparently, cutting its way for future supplies to America, Gazprom will have to work in the East as well, first of all in the Asian-Pacific region. There it will also encounter competition, but the fast-growing economies of China, India and South-East Asian countries makes them equally attractive energy markets.
Igor Tormberg, Candidate of economic sciences, leading research associate at the Institute for International Economic and Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Putin aims for new gas pipelines to Europe through Turkey
Obviously Put can no longer rely on the new U.S. colony of Ukraine for transit but wow! this is putting a lot of trust in Turkey. Is it that Put’s choices have been limited or has Turkey signaled behind the curtain that they indeed are ready to leave the U.S. alliance, at least in private?
-Am
07.18.2005, 10:20 AM
MOSCOW, (AFX) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has set out plans for new gas pipelines through Turkey to supply southern European markets.
And he made a wide-ranging bid for Russia to build up Turkey's energy infrastructure after meeting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
'We do not exclude the possibility of building a new gas line and oil pipelines' for exports, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Putin as saying after talks in the southern Russian resort of Sochi.
'We are ready to build large underground gas depots on Turkish territory, ready to develop gas networks in the context of privatisation in the country, ready to use gas pipelines under construction in Turkey and to participate in the construction of new ones to carry our energy resources to third countries, including southern Europe,' Putin said.
Putin also signalled Russia would increase energy exports to Turkey, including through the 1,213-kilometre (758-mile) long Blue Stream gas pipeline under the Black Sea that was completed in 2002 but has been a source of dispute because of disagreements between Russia and Turkey over gas prices.
Russia, Putin said, 'is ready to develop cooperation with Turkey in the field of electric power, including with a view to exporting to third countries, such as Iraq'.
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