Foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said: "True, the US does not supply Manpads to militants in Syria.
The MANPADs are needed to shoot down the regime's helicopters, but America has resisted sending any to Syria for fear they would end up in the hands of rebels with al-Qaeda ties.
A policy that fuels but does not change the dynamics of the war is "the worst of all worlds", says Emile Hokayem, an analyst based in Bahrain for a London-based think-tank, the International Institute for Strategic Studies.Rebel commanders hope that America's shift includes a green light for Saudi Arabia to provide them with man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADs)—hitherto vetoed by America.
The UN says the regime's crimes still far outweigh those of the rebels.If the rebels are still to have a chance of victory, they would need a no-fly zone to protect their gains in the north; air strikes against Mr Assad's tanks and missile defences; and sophisticated weapons, such as man-portable air-defence systems ("manpads"), to tackle Mr Assad's air force and heavy armour.
They would be vulnerable to man-portable air defence systems (MANPADs), such as the heat-seeking SA-7, that Colonel Qaddafi has in abundance.
While MANPADS were typically a threat to commercial aircraft only at relatively low altitude, Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine while cruising at 33,000 feet (10 km) in July 2014 by a self-propelled BUK surface-to-air missile system.
A SAM was fired at an Israeli airliner in Africa in 2002, and insurgents downed a number of U.S. aircraft during the Iraq War using MANPADS.
The plane was also cruising at 31,000ft before any incident occurred, which experts have said is out of range for Wilayat Sinai's air-defence systems, known as Manpads, meaning the plane was too high to have been hit.
The Pentagon will provide "basic kinds of equipment" to leaders of the groups, not "higher end" arms like anti-tank rockets and manpads, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Christine Wormuth told reporters on a White House conference call.
Video: Unverified Isis propaganda footage claims to show downing of plane Wilayat Sinai militants do have shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles called Manpads, the BBC reports, but security experts say that they would not have been able to strike the Airbus A321 as it flew at 31,000ft.
Yes, because of the perceived risk of an attack using shoulder-launched missiles - known as man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS) - by rebel forces fighting in the Sinai.
