Israel slams Russia for selling anti-missile system to Iran

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2005%5C12%5C05%5Cstory_5-12-2005_pg4_18

TEL AVIV: Israel on Sunday lambasted Russia over the sale of anti-missile systems to arch-enemy Iran, the latest round of what the local press has dubbed the Iranian-Israeli arms race.

Iran, already under intense international pressure over its nuclear activities, has reportedly bought 29 mobile air defence systems from Moscow in a deal worth more than 700 million dollars.

Russia’s news agency ITAR-TASS on Friday quoted an unnamed top Russian Defence Ministry official as saying the deal involved 29 Tor M-1 mobile systems capable of bringing down both aircraft and missiles. “When a country sells arms to Iran, it strengthens the military strength of the state and serves only the interests of the most negative elements in the region,” Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Marc Regev told AFP.

Israeli newspapers noted the weapons build-up with some alarm, with respected military commentator Alex Fishman calling the arms race a ‘cancerous illness’ in a column in the top-selling Yediot Aharanot newspaper.

Why would Israel or any country not want another to be able to defend themselves?

that it will pre-emptively attack Iranian nuclear facilities, as they did in Iraq in the early eighties.

Why should it be that Israel only has the "right to defend itself" as Bush has said? Doesn't Iran, a named target by Israel,who has nukes, also have the right to defend itself? and the right to buy defensive missiles from Russia in order to defend itself? Russia is not an enemy so far as I know.

It seems to me that any leader who does not pursue that course in the face of threats from Israel, has got to be remiss or incompetant to the point of idiocy.

This can only me more and more destablization of the ME and an assurance that their will be continuous warfare there.