Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Tuesday that Moscow could sell arms to Iraq, which bought billions of dollars of Soviet weapons under Saddam Hussein. Ivanov said that if the Iraqi administration makes such a request, Russia is ready to sell weapons and help train Iraqi military personnel. "We could do that ... if the Iraqi government asks us to provide military-technical assistance," Ivanov said, according to the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies. "If there is such a request, we are ready to resume supplies." Ivanov said that if Baghdad asks Moscow to train its military personnel, that could only be done in Russia or a third country. Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of General Staff of Russia's armed forces, said Tuesday that NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Gen. James Jones, suggested that Russia supply weapons to Iraq. "Equipping the (Iraqi) army with Soviet-designed weapons, which are reliable and not that difficult to use and maintain, is the most efficient option," Baluyevsky said in remarks carried by NTV television. "It was Gen. Jones who suggested that. I said I would report that to my leadership, but from my personal viewpoint it's quite feasible." Russia opposed the war in Iraq, but backed U.S.-proposed post-war stabilization efforts. It has refused to send peacekeepers to Iraq, but expressed a strong interest in maintaining oil exploration contracts it has signed with Hussein's government.
