Media: Russia, China, Iran to Hold Large Exercise in Syria

20.06.2012 Military exercise with participation of Russian, Chinese, Syrian, and Iranian forces will be held in the nearest time in Syria, reported Dubai-headquartered TV channel Al Arabiya referring to Iranian news agency Fars.

According to the report, it is going to be the largest exercise in the Middle East with about 90,000 servicemen of land, naval, and air forces involved, reports Interfax.

Al Arabiya reported that Egypt permitted 12 Chinese ships to pass through the Suez Canal; the ships are to arrive in Syria within the next two weeks.

As was said in the report, the exercise will be attended by somewhat 400 aircraft and 1,000 tanks as well as Russian submarines, destroyers, and the aircraft carrier.

In its turn, Syria plans to test land-to-sea missiles and air defense systems, reports the TV channel.

Meanwhile, Russian military expert Vladimir Kudelev being a chief researcher of Arabic issues at the Institute of Oriental Studies, described those reports as absolute deception.

"It is fake, absolute deception. Such exercise has never been planned and, what is more, is impossible in the current environment around Syria", Kudelev said.

Answering the question who could take advantage of such reports, the expert said: "This disinformation was born in Iran, but won't be long and effective".

"This report is absurd, senseless, and not worth analyzing", said the expert.

According to Vzglyad, a source in Russian Navy Main HQ said that landing ships Nikolai Filchenkov and Caesar Kunikov would secure Russian naval maintenance base in Syrian port Tartus, if needed.

Recall that in the recent days the tension between Russo-Chinese coalition opposing interference into Syria's internal affairs and NATO countries which have allegedly decided upon the military intervention is going into the new round.

As was reported on Monday, June 18, British underwriters annulled insurance of Russian shipping operator Femco Management when its cargo ship MV Alaed was found off Scotland allegedly carrying arms to Syria.

It is noteworthy that dry cargo ship Alaed indeed was approximately 40 miles away from Scottish port Thurso in Monday morning. However, according to Marinetraffic, destination port of the ship was not Syrian Tartus but Vladivostok. Alaed was about to arrive there on July 24.

Earlier on, The Telegraph wrote that the vessel registered in Curacao and belonging to Volcano Shipping NV was carrying to Syria just those helicopters recently mentioned by US state secretary Hillary Clinton. However, the ship's financial operator Danish company United Nordic Shipping refuted that information saying that due to such rumors it had afforded convincing and complete proofs to appropriate authorities.

The Mrs. Clinton's statement looked strange from the very beginning. The head of American diplomacy talked about mysterious helicopters in the last week. "We are concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria, which will escalate the conflict quite dramatically", she said then.

Clinton's revelation was a surprise both for Russia and the Pentagon. The latter one instantly stated that the US intelligence had no information about any Russian helicopters delivered to Syria.