Russia says it will go ahead with deliveries of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, and that the arms will help deter foreign intervention.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the missiles were a “stabilising factor” that could dissuade “some hotheads” from entering the conflict.
Russia also criticised an EU decision not to renew an arms embargo on Syria.
Meanwhile, the BBC has heard evidence that 200 people were killed in a massacre in western Syria this month.
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Analysis
Jim Muir
BBC News
While lifting the EU arms embargo is theoretically good news for the fractious Syrian opposition, it is clearly going to be some time before it has any effect on the battlefield balance. Its authors hope the decision will send a strong enough signal to the Assad regime that it is time to hand over power. That is extremely unlikely. It is hard facts on the ground that count for a regime that has shown determination to fight to the end to stay in power.
While European arms supplies remain for the moment theoretical, the step has stirred an angry reaction – possibly even an escalation – from the Russians. They’ve said the move jeopardises efforts to convene a peace conference, and that they plan to honour a prior contract to supply Syria with advanced S-300 air defence missiles. Israel sees that as a threat to its own security, and has warned that it “would know what to do”.
The stakes are clearly getting higher. But for the rebels at least the eventual possibility of carefully-controlled arms deliveries is there, in what looks like being a bloody, long-haul struggle.
Opposition activists said they had documented the civilian deaths in al-Bayda and Baniyas after government troops and militias entered the towns.
‘We know what to do’
The S-300 is a highly capable surface-to-air missile system that, as well as targeting aircraft, also has the capacity to engage ballistic missiles.
It is broadly comparable to the US Patriot system which has been deployed by Nato to guard Turkish air space against attack, says BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus.
Mr Ryabkov said the contract for the missile systems had been signed several years ago.
“We consider these supplies a stabilising factor and believe such steps will deter some hotheads from considering scenarios that would turn the conflict international with the involvement of outside forces,” he was quoted as telling journalists, in a coded reference to the use of Nato warplanes in Libya.