MOSCOW. Nov 16 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia should refrain from exporting its weapons to Lebanon, the director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, Ruslan Pukhov, told Interfax-AVN on Tuesday.
"Negative consequences that could be entailed by possible deliveries of weapons to Beirut seriously outweigh any possible benefit of such deals" because Russian-made weapons could be used "against both our historical ally in this region - Syria - and Israel, with which Russia is developing dialogue today," Pukhov said.
"Second, Lebanon is a low-resource state, and it will hardly be able to pay for weapon supplies. That is why we would have to send weapons to the regime of [Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad al-Din] al-Hariri free of charge," the analyst said.
"It is also totally obvious that al-Hariri, who knows that the Americans will give him $100 million worth of weapons in assistance, is trying to play on several tables at once. He is holding talks both with the Americans, France and Russia," he said.
"We already have a record of military-technological cooperation with Lebanon, which was not quite successful," Pukhov said.
"Previously, we promised to give them ten MiG-29 airplanes free of charge, but, at Lebanon's request, these fighter jets were later 'transformed' into ten [Mil] Mi-24 assault helicopters owned by a Russian agency. This issue has not been resolved yet," he said.
"Military-technological cooperation with Lebanon does not meet Russia's interests," Pukhov said.
Al-Hariri said ahead of a visit to Moscow that Lebanon planned to purchase weapons from Russia.
Beirut bought Russian weapons earlier, and it will try to secure discounts for arms purchases both for the Lebanese army, Internal Troops and security forces, al-Hariri told the television network Russia Today.
Possible exports of Russian airplanes to Lebanon could be discussed, he said.
Lebanon is ready to work out a plan of action to buy Russian-made weapons, al-Hariri said.
According to earlier reports, Lebanon is interested in acquiring Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and artillery systems. It is not ruled out that Lebanon could be granted a loan to pay for the weapons.