Here is the article about Netanyahu and the rockets
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1149950.htmlRussia tells Netanyahu it will hold off on Iran arms deal
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday assured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that it would hold off on its contract to sell an advanced air defense system to Iran.
Israel has repeatedly asked Russia to scrap its contract over the sale of the S-300 system to Iran. Netanyahu said he had received assurances from the Russian leader during their talks on Monday that Moscow understood the seriousness of the issues involved for regional stability.
"On this issue Russia is taking into consideration the needs for stability in the region," Netanyahu told reporters.
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The truck-mounted S-300, which can shoot down hostile missiles or aircraft up to 150 km [90 miles] away, could help Iran thwart any attempt by Israel or the United States to bomb its nuclear facilities.
Netanyahu on Monday made good during the meeting on his promise to pressure Moscow to join international efforts to impose harsher sanctions against Iran over its contentious nuclear program.
Netanyahu stressed to the Russian leader that Iran's nuclear ambitions must be halted before it could succeed in developing an atomic bomb and implored Medvedev to back "sanctions with teeth" targeting Iran's energy sector.
"What is needed now is very tough sanctions that can influence this regime and severe sanctions that will considerably and convincingly harm the import and export of oil," Netanyahu told reporters in Moscow after the meeting.
"President Medvedev heard from me my position about the need for sanctions with teeth. They can bite only if they have teeth. Diluted sanctions don't work," Netanyahu said.
Prior to Netanyahu's visit, Russia defended S-300 sale
An hour before Netanyahu's plane took off on Sunday, Russian officials said that Moscow sees no reason to delay the sale of the S-300, a powerful air-defense system, to Iran. In addition, on Friday, Russian intelligence officials leaked comments expressing their displeasure with plans by an Israeli firm to close a major arms deal with Georgia.
"There is a signed contract [for the S-300 missiles] which we must follow through on, but deliveries have not started yet," Vladimir Nazarov, deputy secretary of Russia's Security Council secretary, told Interfax news agency in an interview. "This deal is not restricted by any international sanctions, because we are talking about deliveries of an exclusively defensive weapon."
Nazarov added that a military strike on Iran would be a big mistake and that the problems linked to Tehran's nuclear program must be resolved by diplomatic means only.
"Any military action against Iran will make the situation explode and will have extremely negative consequences for the entire world, including for Russia, which is a neighbor of Iran," he noted.
Israel has expressed concern in the past over Russian plans to sell Iran the S-300 system, which will be used to defend its nuclear installations against a possible attack. During the past two years, both Israel and the United States have pressured Russia not to implement the agreement with Iran, and there may be other opposition, according to sources in the premier's entourage.
In recent months Russia had promised not to go through with the deal. However, the economic crisis and pressure from the military establishment have resulted in major disagreements within the country's leadership on the issue.
Medvedev recently told President Shimon Peres and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman that Russia needs the revenue from the deal and suggested that a different buyer be found.
Russia's declarations about the S-300 system were also meant to send a message to Israel that it does not approve the resumption of its arms sales to Georgia, which were frozen in August 2008.
According to the Russian government news agency, Itar-Tass, Israel resumed the sale of arms to Georgia and "is no longer limiting itself to the sale of UAVs [drones]," which are perceived to be defensive weapons.
A Russian intelligence source was quoted as saying that a private Israeli firm is providing weapons to the Georgian armed forces .
Specifically, according to the Russian news agency Ropadia, a company registered in Cyprus signed a contract for the delivery of 50,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 1,000 RPG launchers, and 20,000 40mm shells for the rocket launchers, in addition to 15,000 assault rifles of different types. The report stated that the arms deal was also carried out through Arsenal, a Bulgarian firm.
Foreign Ministry sources did not confirm the reports, but said that the timing of the leak to Itar-Tass is not coincidental and it appears that certain figures in Russia wish to link the arms sales to Georgia with Israel's demand for a freeze on the S-300 deal to Iran.
Sources at the ministry confirmed that security ties with Georgia were recently resumed, but they involve provision of basic training for the Georgian army by Israeli firms.
Russia denies new Iran fuel proposal
Russia's Foreign Ministry meanwhile denied on Monday a report that world powers had given Iran new proposals to send its uranium abroad for reprocessing, Interfax news agency said.
Russia said that powers had simply confirmed their support for a proposal brokered by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to send much of Iran's low enriched uranium abroad in return for fuel intended for a Tehran research reactor.
"Russia, the United States and France merely confirmed their support for the previously agreed IAEA proposals," an unidentified official at Russia's Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
The semi-official Iranian ILNA news agency quoted Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran's Atomic Energy organization, as saying proposals had been received after Tehran opted to step up its own uranium enrichment, a decision it announced last week
