Moscow forcefully rejected on Wednesday Hillary Clinton’s accusation that Russia was supplying Syria with helicopter gunships that could be used against civilians, as Syria announced it had “cleansed” the rebel town of Haffa of armed fighters.

Speaking in Tehran, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said Moscow was instead “completing contracts that were signed and paid for a long time ago. All of them are contracts for what are solely air defence systems.”

He said: “We do not supply Syria or anyone else with resources that are used in fighting peaceful demonstrators” – and, seeking to turn the tables on Mrs Clinton, added, “unlike the United States, which regularly supplies that region with such special equipment, including one such shipment [that] went to one of the Gulf countries recently, but for some reason the Americans consider this to be in order”.

Mr Lavrov also drew attention to comments made by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday, in which the spokesman said that although the Pentagon knew Mr Assad was turning to helicopter gunships, it could not confirm they were being supplied by Russia.

However, Mrs Clinton returned to the theme of Russian military sales on Wednesday, saying the US had “repeatedly urged the Russian government to cut these ties immediately” and suspend further deliveries of weapons and other military hardware.

She added that Russia was putting its “vital interests in the region and relationships” at risk by blocking international action on a transition plan, in remarks reported by the Associated Press.

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