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TEL AVIV, Israel, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Israel has lashed out at Russia's sale of cruise missiles to Syria, stoking fears that the weapons could end up in the hands of militant Islamists. The condemnation came shortly after Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov told reporters that Moscow would proceed with a contentious 2007 contract to supply Damascus with P-800 Yakhout anti-ship cruise missiles.
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On the same day, a leading newspaper in Israel, Haaretz reported that Syria had already received shipments of the missiles.
"The weapons," the newspaper said, "reached the Syrian army at some point in the last few weeks despite intense Israeli pressure on Moscow to scuttle the deal." It cited anonymous diplomatic sources as also indicating that contacts and diplomatic moves with the Kremlin would be made.
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told a meeting of Likud ministers Sunday that Moscow's arms sale to Syria is "problematic."
"We've known about this deal for a while and we held meetings with Russians at every level.
"Unfortunately the sale went through," he said. "We are living with the threat of a new variety of missiles and rockets, and we must have a military response to them."
Netanyahu cited the advanced F-35 fighter jet as part of that military response.
Capable of carrying a payload of 273 pounds and traveling 184 miles, the new Syrian cruise missiles are enormously accurate, designed to travel just yards above the surface of the water, making it extremely difficult to either intercept or identify by radar.
The RIA-Novosti Russian news agency reported that Israel and the United States asked Russia to scrap the sale. Moscow, though, refused insisting that the arms wouldn't "fall in the hands of terrorists."
Israel has long argued that Damascus aids and abets Hezbollah, a group on several countries list of terror organizations. Israel fought a bloody 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006 and is concerned of a strike mounted against its soil on behalf of Iran, its main nemesis.
Russian weapons sales to Damascus provoked Israeli ire in May after Moscow said it was supplying Syria with MiG-29 fighter jets, Pantsir short-range air defense systems and armored vehicles.
Citing an anonymous diplomat, Haaretz said Damascus continued "to proclaim its desire for peace with Israel but at the same time is deepening its ties with the radical regional axis of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas."
A flurry of Israeli news articles have increasingly reported that radical organizations in Syria and Lebanon had been receiving support from Egypt.
Russia's controversial sale of missiles to Syria is estimated at $300 million, intended to include 72 missiles.
