BEIRUT — Syrian President Al-Bashar said the regime has received the first shipment of sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft missiles, while the main Western-backed opposition group announced Thursday that it will not participate in peace talks — a double blow to international efforts to end the country's devastating civil war. Assad's comment on the arrival of the long-range S-300 air defense missiles in Syria, which was made in an interview with Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned TV station, could further ratchet up tensions in the region and undermine any to hold any peace talks. Israel's defense chief, Moshe Yaalon, said earlier this week that Russia's plan to supply Syria with the weapons was a threat and that Israel was prepared to use force to stop the delivery. Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV released Assad's comments on the Russian missiles in print, through its breaking news service Thursday morning. "Syria has received the first shipment of Russian anti-aircraft S-300 rockets," the TV quoted Assad as saying. The Syrian leader added: "All our agreements with Russia will be implemented and parts of them have already been implemented." An official at the station confirmed to The Associated Press that the remarks were from the exclusive interview the TV was to air in full later in the day. The shipment of the missiles, if confirmed, comes just days after the European Union lifted an arms embargo on Syria, paving way for individual countries of the 27-member bloc to send weapons to rebels fighting to topple Assad's regime. With the Russian missiles in Syria's possession, the Israeli air force's ability to strike inside the Arab country could be limited since the S-300s would expand Syria's capabilities, allowing it to counter airstrikes launched from foreign airspace as well. The S-300s have a range of up to 200 km and the capability to track and strike multiple targets simultaneously. Syria already possesses Russian-made air defenses, and Israel is believed to have used long-distance bombs fired from IsraelLebanon. Meanwhile, the Syrian National Coalition's decision not to attend US-Russian sponsored talks with representatives of the Assad regime torpedoes the only plan for trying to end Syria's two-year conflict that the international community had been able to agree on. "The talk about the international conference and a political solution to the situation in Syria has no meaning in light of the massacres that are taking place," a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, Khalid Saleh, said in Istanbul, where the opposition has been holding week-long deliberations on a strategy for the Geneva talks. Meanwhile, rebels under siege in Qusayr, town near the Lebanese border issued a desperate appeal for reinforcements and medical supplies as government troops and Lebanese guerrillas pounded their defenses. Warning that the town, once home to some 30,000 people, could be wiped off the map and hundreds of wounded risked dying without help, the rebel fighters inside Qusayr issued an appeal on social media for allies to come to break the siege. "The town is surrounded and there's no way to bring in medical aid," Malek Ammar, an opposition activist in the town, told Reuters by an Internet link, saying about 100 of the 700 wounded needed oxygen. "What we need them to do," he said of other rebel units, "is come to the outskirts of the city and attack the checkpoints so we can get routes in and out of the city." — Agencies
