Russian warships head to Syria with suspected weapons shipments

An American source in the Pentagon has said US intelligence services believe that there are three Russian warships in the Mediterranean on their way to hand over weapons to the Syrian regime, CNN has said.

The American official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that his country had been monitoring the Russian warship since they left Russian ports three days ago.

The official said that he was not sure, but US intelligence services believe that it is a weapon shipment, which includes S-300 missiles, on its way to the Syrian regime. The shipment does not include military helicopters.

It is worth noting that Washington has asked Russian not to pass S-300 missiles to the Syrian regime because these missiles reinforce its military power.

The media has recently reported excerpts from an interview with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, broadcast by Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV. According to the reports, Al-Assad said that his country had received the first shipment of S-300s.

However, the London based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported that Al-Assad had only said: “All that we have agreed with Russia is going to be fulfilled. A part of that was fulfilled in the recent past, and with the Russians, we will keep on fulfilling our contracts.”

He did not mention whether his country had received the S-300s or not, the newspaper said.

Meanwhile, the Russian president Vladimir Putin said two days ago that the contract for the S-300s between his country and Syria has not yet been fulfilled.