TEL AVIV, Israel, April 28 (UPI) -- Syria may be planning to use expected oil revenue increases to buy new weaponry and military equipment.
Israel's military intelligence chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadin, giving a lecture to the country's intelligence community, indicated Damascus was ready to begin purchasing materiel, Ha'aretz reported Friday.
A retrofit of the country's air force, which has not bought new aircraft since the 1980s, was expected to be a priority.
Domestically, Syria's military spending would continue to be focused on its production of 200 and 300 millimeter rockets and longer-range SCUDS, the newspaper quoted Yadin as saying.
Some of the rockets, he said, are apparently being transferred to Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas who have deployed them along the frontier with Israel.
Syria produced about 535,000 barrels of oil per day in 2003, down from 590,000 in 1996. Plans are underway to build more refineries.
