The Russian military indicated yesterday it will supply Bashar Assad with a sophisticated air defense system following Moscow's condemnation of the missile attack launched by the United States, Britain and France earlier this month.

Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said Russia will supply Assad with "new missile defense systems soon." Rudskoi's statement did not specify the type of weapons, but his remarks follow reports in the Russian media that Moscow is considering selling its S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Syria.

Top Russian officials said that in light of the airstrikes on Syria earlier this month, Moscow may reconsider a pledge it gave a decade ago not to provide Assad with the S-300 system. The strikes were in retaliation to an April 7 suspected chemical weapons attack in the town of Douma, near Damascus, that killed more than 40 people.

Transferring upgraded air-defense systems to Syria could be seen as an escalation by neighboring Israel and raises the risk of Israeli attacks. Russia's ambassador to Israel yesterday played down tensions between the countries over Israeli attacks in Syria, saying they were not the reason for Moscow's proposed supply of an advanced air defense system to Damascus.

When asked whether Russia would now curtail Israel's freedom of action in Syria, Ambassador Alexander Shein sounded circumspect.

"It is of course in our interest that these actions not take place, because they worsen the Syria situation," he told Israeli news site Ynet, as reported by Reuters. "We of course understand the reasons for Israel deciding to carry out actions of this kind, and would of course also prefer that these reasons not exist," he added.

The ambassador also played down the risk of a physical confrontation between Russia and Israel over Syria. "I can't imagine any such scenario," he said in response to Lieberman's threat. "We are mutually coordinating and updating about Syria ... So far, there have been no incidents between us, nor even hints at incidents, and I hope there will not be."

The Israelis say their strikes aim to prevent Iran's pro-Assad garrison from entrenching in Syria and linking with Hezbollah in Lebanon to form a broad front against them.

"If anyone shoots at our planes, we will destroy them," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Ynet on Tuesday.