As it turned out, European countries have sent weapons to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE and Turkey where it got into Syria, and Yemen
Moscow. July 27. INTERFAX.RU – Thousands of assault rifles, mortar shells, rocket launchers, light anti-tank weapons and heavy machine guns have got new weapons channels from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf and the States bordering Syria. This is stated in the report, “Balkan investigative reporting network” (BIRN) and the “Project of investigation of corruption and organized crime (OCCRP).
The report notes that most of the weapons is supposed to be further redirected to Syria and contribute to the escalation of a conflict that has already lasted five years.
Data on arms exports, the UN report and the details about flying aircraft, studied by journalists, show how the weapons went to the East from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Montenegro, Slovakia, Serbia and Romania.
Since the escalation of the Syrian conflict in 2012, eight countries have approved the export of weapons to 1.2 billion euros in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE and Turkey – a key arms markets of Syria and Yemen.
The study notes that the supply of weapons was opened in winter 2012, when dozens of transport planes, loaded purchased by the Saudis with weapons and ammunition began to fly from Zagreb to Jordan.
The Croatian government continually denies any involvement in arms shipments to Syria, but the former U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Robert Steven said that Zagreb was signed in 2012, a deal financed by Saudi Arabia.
Arms dealers in Eastern Europe bought goods in their countries and engaged in brokering the sale of ammunition from Ukraine and Belarus, even tried to put anti-tank missile system of Soviet production, purchased from the UK.
In a confidential document obtained by BIRN staff and OCCRP and dated November 2013, a senior representative of the Ministry of defence of Serbia expressed concerns that weapons supplied to Saudi Arabia will be redirected to Syria.
Weapons purchased by the Saudis, Turks, Jordanians and UAE for Syria to pass through two security command site in Jordan and Turkey, the so-called military operations centers, according to the study authors.
Then the weapons are transported by road to the border with Syria or cleared aircraft. The Saudis, as noted, was dropped from the plane to the Serbian assault rifle production to its allies in Yemen.
In turn, Washington also purchased and delivered a large number of military equipment from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to the Syrian opposition in an attempt to resist the spread of influence of the IG (banned in Russia).
According to American documents and data for tracking the routes of the ships, by order of the special operations Command of the United States, responsible for covert arms supplies to Syria, from December 2013, three of the cargo ship headed to the Balkans for arms deliveries to Syria.
In the words of one of their commanders of the free Syrian army, the weapons from the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were distributed from a centrally managed headquarters.
“If you say that the war against ISIS, you will get all that you want, but if you say that are fighting the regime, nobody cares about”, – he explained.
