MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Moscow is confident that Russia's arms supplies to the central government in Iraq will not fall into the wrong hands, the head of the Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport said Tuesday.
"In Iraq we are supplying arms only to the central government. The contracts contain a ban on the transfer of the Russian arms to some other hands, other countries. We are confident that the Iraqi and the Syrian governments will adhere to the terms of the contracts," Anatoly Isaikin told journalists at a briefing.
Russia is supplying Syria and Iraq with weapons in order to help these countries' authorities confront Islamic terrorist groups operating in the region. Iraq and Syria are currently fighting against the Islamic State terrorist group and Nusra Front militants, a Syrian branch of the al-Qaeda.
According to Rosoboronexport, Russia supplied arms worth $13.2 billion in 2014. The largest part of Russian arms exports — 42 percent — goes to the Asian-Pacific region, with 36 percent of military exports going to the Middle East and North Africa, while Latin America and CIS countries each accounted for 9 percent.
