Syrian President Bashar Assad said Monday that Russia has been supplying Syria with weapons since 2011, which contradicts Moscow’s earlier assertion that deals were only made prior to the nation’s civil war.
“There are contracts that had been sealed before the crisis started and were carried out during the crisis. There are other agreements on arms supplies and cooperation that were signed during the crisis and are being carried out now,” Mr. Assad told Russia’s Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper, Reuters reported. “They went through some changes to take into account the type of fighting the Syrian army carries out against the terrorists.”
Roughly 220,000 people have died since Syria’s civil war began in the spring of 2011. Millions of Syrians have also been displaced.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not answer when asked whether Moscow was supplying weapons to Syria.
“In fact, Moscow has always highlighted that there have been and are no embargoes on military cooperation. There are no legal limitations on us,” he told reporters, Reuters reported.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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