Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon planted seeds of tension between Israel and Russia when he denounced a Russian plan to impart sophisticated anti-aircraft missiles to Syria.
Calling the potential sale of S-300 air defense missiles a "threat," Yaalon has begun pushing for the transaction to halt after Russia reiterated interest in sending the military grade weapons to opposing forces in Syria; following an alleged Israeli-led airstrike inside Syria, diminishing potential for peace talks between the nations involved.
According to Russia Today, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the action would "restrain some hotheads from escalating the conflict to the international scale."
The dispute comes just weeks after the European Union consented to lifting an arms embargo that stopped weapons from being sent to assist the rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad national forces known as the Free Syrian Army.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to Russia earlier this month to speak to Vladimir Putin on the violence in Syria, and while reports are unclear, it is believed that the sale of the missiles in question were included in the talks, according to the Huffington Post.
Yaloon publicly denounced the move as a direct reaction of the meetings, and "threat" to Israel.
"At this stage I can't say there is an escalation. The shipments have not been sent on their way yet. And I hope they will not be sent," Yaloon said. Nonetheless, "if...they do reach Syria, we will know what to do."
Defending their actions, Russian officials said, "Russia reserves the right to provide Syria with state-of-the-art defense missiles, seeing it as a key deterrent against foreign intervention in the country."
"We understand the concerns and signals sent to us from different capitals, we realize that many of our partners are concerned about the issue," said one Russian authority. "We have no reason to revise our stance."
Syria currently possesses a number of Russian-made weapons. The addition of the S-300 missiles would increase Syria's defense power, as growing concerns that Israel has been using long-distance bombs in a number of instances throughout the Syrian crisis.
