SYRIA TO BUY LATEST RUSSIAN MISSILE DEFENCE SYSTEM: PRESIDENT ASSAD

DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said Damascus is negotiating with regime ally Moscow to buy the latest Russian anti-missile system to repel Israeli and American attacks. “It’s natural that we should have such systems,” he said, quoted by Syria’s official SANA agency yesterday, the same day as Damascus accused Israel of firing several missiles at a military position near its international airport. “Israel has been committing aggressions on the Arab states surrounding it since its creation in 1948,” Assad told Venezuelan channel Telesur. “It is natural for us to negotiate with the Russians with a view to strengthening (our) systems.”