Foreign Affairs Front Page News
Source: Middle East Newsline
Published: 06/07
Posted on 06/07/2001 19:30:46 PDT by oxi-nato
LONDON [MENL] -- Croatia has secretly sold Israel an advanced S-300 anti-aircraft system.
The London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat said Croatia bought the S-300 system from Russia in 1995 for $19 million. Israel, the newspaper said, financed the deal and the system was then taken out of Croatia to the Jewish state.
Israel turned to Croatia, the newspaper said, because it could not purchase the system directly from Moscow, a major supplier of weapons to Arab states. Russia has been offering the S-300 to such countries as Iran, Libya and Syria.
Croatian authorities are now conducting an investigation into how the S-300 was smuggled out of the country. The newspaper said the sale and delivery of the system took place during the regime of the late President Franjo Tudjman.
утка это - А.Никольский08.06.2001 12:57:40 (1935 b)
