Tuesday, Israeli Drone Exports `Halted' Amid Azerbaijan Inquiry Israel -- Defense Ministry building in Tel Aviv, 5Aug2007 Israel's Defense Ministry has reportedly halted exports of "suicide" drones manufactured by an Israeli company that was accused earlier this month of using them against an Armenian army position at the request of Azerbaijan. In a statement cited by the Newsru.co.il news service, the company, Aeronautics Defense Systems (ADS), said late on Monday that the ministry's export control agency has at least temporarily banned it from delivering a batch of Orbiter 1K drones to a key foreign client. The statement said ADS was due to supply $20 million worth of such unmanned aircraft, capable of carrying special explosive payload, to the client in 2017-2018. The ADS statement did not specify the buyer of the sophisticated weapon, saying only that Israel has close commercial ties with that country. It also attributed the ban to an ongoing inquiry conducted by the Israeli security agency. The Israeli newspaper "Maariv" reported on August 13 that the agency launched an investigation after receiving a formal complaint stemming from ADS's commercial dealings with the Azerbaijani government. It said ADS representatives traveled to Azerbaijan earlier this summer to finalize a contract for the sale of Orbiter drones to the Azerbaijani military. The paper claimed that two Israeli drone operators working for the defense company rebuffed Azerbaijani officials' demand to demonstrate the use of the deadly drone by hitting the Armenian position with it. But other, more senior ADS executives agreed on launch the deadly craft on the target, according to "Maariv." ADS denied the report, saying that "the operational action was carried out by the purchaser alone." Nagorno-Karabakh - An Israel-manufactured Azerbaijani "suicide" drone is shot down in the Martakert district, 4Apr2016 According to Nagorno-Karabakh's Armenian-backed Defense Army, the Azerbaijani military most recently attacked its frontline positions with a suicide drone on July 7. The commander of an army unit stationed in northeastern Karabakh said in early August that two of his soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident. No Armenian military hardware was damaged in that drone attack, he said. The Azerbaijani army heavily used similar suicide drones manufactured by another Israeli company, Israel Aerospace Industries, during the April 2016 hostilities in Karabakh. Baku had received them as part of multimillion-dollar defense contracts signed with Israeli arms manufacturers. The Israeli weapons sold to Azerbaijan have included not only various types of unmanned aircraft but also air-defense systems and anti-tank rockets. Armenia has long expressed concern at the Israeli-Azerbaijani arms deals, saying that they undermine international efforts to end the Karabakh conflict. Still, its reaction to the "Maariv" report was rather cautious. Yerevan Fire Mostly Extinguished . Astghik Bedevian Armenia - Firefighters battle a fire in the Nairit chemical plant in Yerevan, 28Aug2017. Firefighters largely extinguished on Tuesday a massive fire in a chemical plant in Yerevan that raised health concerns among people in nearby residential areas. The blaze quickly engulfed on Monday storage containers filled with chemical waste from the Nairit plant located on the city's southern outskirts.More than a hundred firefighters were sent to the scene to contain it. The Armenian Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) said that they put out the flames in three of the four burning tanks by Tuesday burning. "A small source of fire remains active only in one container," it said in a statement. Black smoke was still billowing from it in the afternoon. "Cooling efforts are still being made to prevent further outbreaks of fire," the head of the ministry's National Center for Crisis Management, Hovannes Khangeldian, told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Some officials suggested that the fire was caused by an explosion. "It is too early to speak of theories," cautioned Khangeldian. "I think that relevant bodies will examine all theories and establish the causes." In another statement issued later in the day, the MES said it will conduct forensic tests for that purpose. Some "materials regarding the fire" have already been submitted to an Armenian law-enforcement body, it added. The Armenian ministries of environment and health said, meanwhile, that they took air samples from parts of Yerevan's Shengavit district adjacent to Nairit. They insisted that toxic emissions from the fire pose no major health risks to local residents. Still, the Health Ministry released a written statement on Monday urging them to stay indoors and shut their windows. Some Shengavit residents complained that government officials did not visit their neighborhoods and communicate with them in person. "They could have told us what to do through megaphones," said one woman. "They work much harder during elections." Armenian Government Coy About Troop Deployment To Syria Syria -- A Russian Mil Mi-24 "Hind" attack helicopter flies above the damaged site of the ancient city of Palmyra, March 4, 2017 Armenia's leadership on Tuesday declined to confirm or deny a senior Russian military official's claim that that it is prepared to send a demining team to Syria. Major General Alexander Novikov of the Russian army's General Staff said late last week that Armenia and Serbia have expressed readiness to join an "international coalition" which Russia hopes would help its troops clear landmines in the war-torn country. Moscow called for the creation of such a coalition through its permanent representative to the United Nations in April. Asked by News.am whether Yerevan has indeed decided to join the Russian-led effort in Syria, President Serzh Sarkisian's press secretary, Vladimir Hakobian, said: "When a decision is made and all issues are clarified, the public will be notified in an appropriate manner." Hakobian did not comment further. A spokesman for the Armenian Defense Ministry similarly told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) on Monday that the matter requires "further examination." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed possible Armenian involvement in demining operations in the historic Syrian city of Palmyra when he met with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian in Yerevan in April 2016. "I hope that our joint initiative can be implemented," Lavrov said after the talks. It is not clear whether Sarkisian and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about Syria when they met in the Russian city of Sochi on August 23. The Armenian presidential press service said they discussed "topical international and regional issues." Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a Russian-led military alliance of six ex-Soviet states. Press Review "Haykakan Zhamanak" says the latest fire in Armenia's troubled Nairit chemical plant is the third major accident to occur there in the last 11 years. "If Nairit worked, provided jobs to thousands of people, was constantly modernized in the process, paid taxes to the state budget and exported its products, one could weigh up benefits and dangers created by it," writes the paper. "One could discuss whether or not we need Nairit. But with Nairit periodically exploding, burning and putting people's lives at risk and at the same time standing idle, there is probably nothing to weigh up. The Nairit problem requires a radical solution. It must either operate at full capacity or become a thing of the past and cede several hundred hectares of land occupied by it to other businesses or be turned into a big and nice park." "Haykakan Zhamanak" believes that the sorry state of Nairit is "the result of populism." "Nairit's operations were not discontinued on the grounds that thousands of people work there," it says. "That seemed very convincing. However, if there was a political decision to liquidate Nairit under legal and transparent procedures, proceeds from the sale of its expensive equipment would be enough to properly compensate its thousands of employees." "Zhoghovurd" notes that the Nairit fire erupted just weeks after a group of European investors made renewed efforts to take over the plant and restart its production operations. They met with Deputy Prime Minister Vache Gabrielian on August 8 to present their $100 million investment plan. They also made clear that they need to conduct a thorough audit before finally deciding whether to invest in the Soviet-era giant. The paper also notes that the fire broke out in a Nairit unit whose chief manager and two dozen other employees were fired in July. They were tasked with preventing accidents. "Time will tell whether these events are connected with yesterday's fire or whether this is just coincide," the paper says. "Hraparak" hits back at President Serzh Sarkisian's strong denial of suggestions that his 2013 decision to make Armenia part of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) at the expense of a major deal with the European Union was a last-minute U-turn. The paper argues that just days before the announcement of that decision senior Armenian officials were insisting that Armenia has no intention to join the EEU. (Tigran Avetisian) Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL Copyright (c) 2017 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc. 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org