Gaining by Syria independence from France in 1946 and the rise of the State of Israel supported by Western countries, which from the beginning was in the political and military conflict with the Arab states, created for the Soviet Union the new possibilities of the political game in the Middle East. From 1955 to 1991, USSR became the main supplier of conventional arms to Syria (displacing the United Kingdom). In the years 1955–1991 Syria bought in the Soviet Union arms for $ 34.6 billion in SIPRI trend indicator values , which accounted for 8.04% of the value of the total Soviet arms sales during this period. After the collapse of the USSR cooperation in this regard was continued and throughout the years 1992–2012 Russia remained the main and dominant arms supplier to Syria, though not on this scale as earlier. However, especially the 90s of the twentieth century meant a huge setback in comparison to the previous period – then delivery has been completed of diesel engines for the modernization of tanks ordered in Soviet Union, and 3,000 antitank guided missiles were ordered in Russia. In the years 1992–2012 Russia has sold Syria arms for $ 1.254 billion SIPRI trend indicator values , which accounted for 1.21% of the total sales of Russian arms and weapons of 103.393 billion $.