Israel Matzav

A decree that was given in the name of the King and signed by the King cannot be withdrawn?

The title of this post is based on a verse in Esther 8 in which, after the nefarious Haman's plot to murder all the Jews is exposed, King Xerxes tells Queen Esther that he cannot withdraw the decree calling on his subjects to murder all the Jews in his kingdom because a decree that was given in the name of the King and signed by the King cannot be withdrawn. So instead, he issued a decree allowing the Jews to defend themselves.... We all know the rest of the story.

Under pressure from the 'international community' the Russian government in 2010 signed a decree that no S-300 anti-missile defense systems would be sold to Iran. That was before they figured out that the current occupant of the White House really had adopted a policy of degrading America's military capabilities. But since the decree was issued, they don't want to violate. So they are going to sell Iran a variant of the S-300 - called the Antey 2500 or S-300 VM - instead. What's the difference? Not much (Hat Tip: MFS- The Other News). This is from the first link.

"The cancellation of the decree signed by Dmitry Medvedev in 2010 [on severing the contact for S-300] is not under consideration," a Kremlin source told Kommersant. "We are considering the possibility of supplying Iran with systems not falling under the restrictions," he said.

The sources close to the military-technological cooperation system said the matter could imply possible shipments of Antei-2500 systems to Iran, which are a modified version of the S-300V system designed for ground forces and which are not legally subject to the 2010 decree.

"If our Iranian partners accept our proposal, this would help strengthen Russia's positions as a reliable partner in military-technological cooperation. This will also be a reason for Iran to withdraw its lawsuit from a court and put an end to this dispute, which nobody needs," a source close to the Rosoboronexport agency said.

The newspaper said it could not obtain official comments on the matter.

A source close to the Iranian Foreign Ministry also told Kommersant that the issue could be among the key ones to be addressed at Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on July 1, when the Iranian leader would be attending a summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).

"Only one month is left before the end of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidential term, and if he did not have some expectations regarding arms supplies, he would not travel only to attend the GECF summit," he said.

 What could go wrong?

Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Dmitry Medvedev, Iran, Iranian nuclear threat, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Russia, S-300 missile defense system, Vladimir Putin

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:05 AM