Future arms deal with Palestinians may be nixed.
(Illustration: Russia’s Vladimir Putin with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.)
Russian President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to wrap up his trip to the Middle East on Friday by meeting the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah amid increasing doubts over the proposed sale of Russian troop carriers to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Putin did not comment directly on the sale during Thursday’s news conference with Israeli President Moshe Katzav, but there were increasing signs that same day that Moscow was willing to back down in the face of Israeli opposition to the sale of 50 armored troop carriers and two helicopters to the PA.
Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko told the Itar-Tass news agency on Thursday that “this question will not be raised during Putin’s visit to the Palestinian territories”.
He noted that “in principle” there is a Russian-Palestinian agreement to provide the military vehicles, but refused to state his government’s unequivocal commitment to the sale, saying only that Moscow was “working on it”.
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