``Saddam is neither friend, nor brother to us, and he will never pay off debts to us,'' Ivanov said, referring to Iraq's US$7-8 billion Soviet-era debt to Russia. ``It's the question of precedent: today the United States doesn't like Iraq, tomorrow Syria, then Iran, North Korea and then what: everyone else?''
Ivanov said that the war made it necessary to strengthen the Russian military.
``We are drawing some military-political conclusions, because this conflict makes us remember the words of (Russian Czar) Alexander III who said that Russia has only two reliable allies - the army and the navy,'' Ivanov said. ``While the international security system is coming apart at the seams, they must provide a reliable defense.''
