Russian Information Agency Novosti
August 26, 2013
Russia Warns US Again Against Syria Intervention
MOSCOW: Moscow has once again urged Washington against possible military intervention in Syria, warning it would be fraught with unpredictable consequences for the Middle East region.
Russia is especially concerned about remarks by some US administration officials alleging the Syrian government was behind “the purported use of chemical weapons in eastern Ghouta last week,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his US counterpart John Kerry in a telephone conversation, according to a Foreign Ministry website statement.
The Syrian opposition has accused the government of killing hundreds of people in a massive nerve gas attack near Damascus on Wednesday, with death toll estimates varying from 100 to more than 1,000 people. The Syrian government promptly denied the reports as baseless and showed on state TV what it said was evidence of chemical weapons stocks held by rebel forces.
A team of UN inspectors started working in Damascus Monday to verify the claims of chemical weapons use. The team is expected to visit three sites where chemical weapons attacks allegedly occurred previously. One site is the town of Khan al-Assal, in Syria’s northern Aleppo province, where the Syrian government claimed rebels used chemical weapons in March.
US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday President Obama had asked the US military to “prepare for all contingencies,” following the alleged gas attack incidents, US media reported. Lavrov’s appeal follows an increasing force build-up by the United States Navy in the eastern Mediterranean. Four destroyers armed with cruise missiles are in the area, US defense officials told Fox News on the weekend.
“The impression is that certain circles [in the US], including those who are actively calling for military intervention in circumvention of the United Nations, are overtly trying to undo the joint Russian-US efforts to convene an international conference on the peaceful resolution of the crisis,” Lavrov told Kerry.
He urged the US to refrain from exerting pressure on Damascus and responding to provocations, stressing the need to facilitate the ongoing UN investigation into the Ghouta incident.
Kerry promised to carefully study Russia’s arguments. The two ministers agreed to address all aspects of the Syria crisis in the very near future, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The unrest in Syria began in March 2011 and later escalated into a civil war. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict so far, according to the UN.
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Interfax
August 26, 2013
U.S. interference in Syrian conflict will lead to chaos in Middle East – political expert
MOSCOW: U.S. President Barack Obama could possibly resort to military intervention in the Syrian conflict due to pressure of his political opponents, but will try to limit it to a short-term war, head of a working group under the Russian president’s human rights council, political expert Sergei Karaganov said.
Obama will do everything possible not to interfere in the Syrian conflict, however his political opponents insist on military intervention, Karaganov told Interfax on Monday.
“I do not know whether the Obama administration will be able to withstand this pressure. Unfortunately, the situation has unfolded in such a way that military presence is gradually increasing and weapon after weapon is being hung on the wall. That is why I do not exclude the possibility that this operation will begin, regardless of the common sense of acting otherwise. At the very least, bombing the positions of the Syrian forces in cities may occur,” Karaganov said.
“If the United States intervenes, it will be a symbolic war directed not against the region, where chaos will absolutely reign after this war, but at various political groups in the world and in the West,” Karaganov said.
The purpose of this military intervention will be to show that “the United States is ready to use force, that the United States is no longer a paper tiger losing all the time,” the political expert said. “Moreover, the Libyan conflict, in which the United States participated, clearly did not bring victory to them because Libya is now falling apart,” he said.
Russian involvement in this war is unlikely, Karaganov said. “I can hardly imagine Russia will interfere even if this war becomes international. I strongly suspect that it is senseless and impossible to supply the necessary hardware in such a situation and enough weapons have already been accumulated there. Therefore, I do not think that Russia could, nor should it, openly interfere,” he said.
It is obvious that foreign interference in the Syrian conflict will complicate the holding of the Geneva conference. “But it looks like that the development of the situation in Syria, where a comprehensive civil war is underway and where various groups do not want to negotiate, has already eliminated this possibility,” Karaganov said.
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