Armored personnel carrier
Photo: Reuters
Russia to give armored vehicles to PA
Moscow vows to deliver 50 armored personnel carriers to West Bank government in coming days
Russia will deliver 50 armored personnel carriers to the Palestinians in the near future, in order to help the Palestinian Authority to impose order in the West Bank, a spokesman for Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
"In the coming days 50 armored personnel carriers will be delivered to Jordan and then will be handed over to Palestinian security forces in the West Bank," spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters.
Russia first offered to supply armored personnel carriers to the Palestinians for internal security as early as 2005, but Israel initially opposed the delivery.
Last year Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, promised the Palestinian government it would receive the APCs "in the very near future", but no progress has been seen until now.
Israel had at first opposed the move, out of fear that the APCs would fall into the hands of Hamas and other terror organizations, but former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert withdrew the objection after a meeting with Lavrov in 2008.
