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S-300 supplies to Damascus is stabilizing factor in Syrian conflict - Ryabkov

S-300 supplied to Syria under old contracts - diplomat

MOSCOW, May 28 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the supplies of S-300 systems to Damascus are a stabilizing factor in the Syrian conflict.

“The S-300 supplies to Syria are being made under a contract that was signed several years ago. The government in Damascus is a party to that contract,” Ryabkov told a news conference at Itar-Tass on Tuesday, “there is no chance illegal armed groups may use them as a weapon in field conditions. We are not going to reconsider our position on this issue.”

These are supplies of defense armaments to the government of that country to protect facilities and troops from assets which the armed militants in anti-government formations do not possess as of today, he went on to say.

"We believe these supplies a stabilizing factor and assume that such steps largely deter some "hotheads" from considering the scenario under which the conflict is given international character involving the external forces that are not strange to such ideas," Ryabkov underlined.

For Russia, a priority is to "secure conditions for the beginning of a political process, which should start with a new conference, and have it accompanied by a ceasefire agreement," the diplomat said.