Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow has started delivering S-300 air defense systems to the Syrian regime, despite strong objections from Israel and the United States.
Russia announced earlier this week that it would supply President Bashar Assad's regime with advanced anti-aircraft missile systems after the Sept. 17 incident in which Syrian forces responding to an Israeli airstrike mistakenly shot down a Russian military reconnaissance plane, killing all 15 crew members on board.
The incident sparked a crisis between Israel and Russia, with Russia blaming Israel for the shooting. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Russian President Vladimir Putin to express sorrow at the loss of life and sent a high-level military delegation to Moscow.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said last week that the defense system would be delivered to Assad's forces in two weeks' time.
But Lavrov told a press conference on Friday: "The deliveries started already. The measures we will take will be devoted to ensure 100% safety and security of our men in Syria, and we will do this."
Russia, along with Iran, has helped Assad recover significant amounts of lost territory in Syria without persuading him to agree to any political reforms. It has also pushed its own talks with Iran and Turkey, known as the Astana process, as U.N.-led peace negotiations have stalled.
Some diplomats have said the aircraft incident and a Turkish-Russian deal to suspend an offensive on the last rebel-held stronghold in Idlib could provide a window to push for the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254, which covers ending the Syrian conflict.
The U.N. Security Council, in which Russia and the United States are permanent members, has tapped U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura to achieve a deal on a new constitution, new elections and a reform of Syria's governance.
De Mistura's first task is the formation of a constitutional selection committee. He has said he will select about 50 people, including supporters of the government, the opposition and independents to participate, but so far the Syrian government has rejected the idea.
Meeting in New York on Thursday, foreign ministers from the United States, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Britain and Saudi Arabia called on de Mistura to convene the constitutional committee and report back on progress by the end of October.
Lavrov accused the group of trying to undermine the Astana efforts and putting pressure on de Mistura to impose the group's own resolution of the conflict, describing it as "a grave mistake."
"This is aimed at undermining all that was done at Astana process and not the fact the Syrians decide what country they are going to live in but the architecture agreed on by foreign powers," Lavrov said.
