Russia vowed yesterday not to follow a Western arms embargo on Syria and promised new air defence systems and other military components to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The announcement came just a day after Russia dispatched a large naval flotilla to the region that appeared aimed at dispelling any suggestion of Moscow dropping its controversial support for Mr Assad.

A top Russian arms export official had raised eyebrows in Western capitals earlier in the week by saying that Russia would no longer provide new weapons for Syria.

That same official yesterday told reporters that his comments covered only a tiny range of new types of weapons and in no way concerned the military trade that exists between the two allies today.

“Russia has obligations before Syria relating to old contracts – contracts that were signed in 2008 and were later followed by new ones on air defence systems,” the Russian Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation’s deputy chief Vyacheslav Dzirkaln said. “They are being fulfilled and they will be fulfilled,” he told Russian news agencies on the sidelines of the Farnborough Airshow near London.

“But we are not signing any new contracts at this stage,” he added in comments echoing ones he had made earlier in the week.

His initial use of that same phrase on Monday drew cautious praise from the US State Department and were met with encouragement from the spokesman for UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.