Posts
Note,
this is from Fox News
"We
can certainly say that Russia would have options to strike us in that
theater in retaliation for us striking their ally," he warned.
Putin
warns Russia could come to Syria's aid over US strike
5
September, 2013
As
he touched down in St. Petersburg on Thursday morning, President
Obama greeted his host Vladimir Putin with a handshake and a smile.
But
the cordial greeting belies the tinderbox the two leaders are sitting
on, as they posture and deliberate over a potential U.S. strike on
Syria -- one of Russia's closest Mideast allies.
Putin
escalated concerns about the fallout from any strike when he
indicated in an interview published Wednesday that his country could
send Syria and its neighbors in the region the components of a
missile shield if the U.S. attacks.
U.S.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified
this week that the Russians might even replace any military assets
the U.S. destroys in a strike.
The
warnings raise the possibility of a supposedly "limited"
strike on Syria turning into a proxy tit-for-tat between Russia and
the U.S.
Rep.
George Holding, R-N.C., went further during a hearing on Syria on
Wednesday, pressing military officials on what the U.S. would do "if
Russia decided to strike at us in that theater."
"We
can certainly say that Russia would have options to strike us in that
theater in retaliation for us striking their ally," he warned.
Dempsey
declined to engage in that discussion, saying only that "Russia
has capabilities that range from the asymmetric, including cyber, all
the way up through strategic nuclear weapons. And again, it wouldn't
be helpful in this setting to speculate about that."
Secretary
of State John Kerry, though, said the Russians have made clear they
don't intend to go to war over a strike on Syria.
Perhaps
more likely is that Putin's government would continue to aid and prop
up the Assad regime, undermining any gains made by a U.S. strike.
"Putin
will live up to what he says," Fox News military analyst retired
Lt. Col. Ralph Peters said." If we destroy Syrian military
technology, Putin will replace it."
Putin
said in a published interview this week that he'd reconsider the
status of a suspended S-300 missile defense contract.
"We
have a contract for the delivery of the S-300s. We have supplied some
of the components, but the delivery hasn't been completed," he
said. "We have suspended it for now. But if we see that steps
are taken that violate the existing international norms, we shall
think how we should act in the future, in particular regarding
supplies of such sensitive weapons to certain regions of the world."
The
possibility for Russia stepping up its role in the region makes
Obama's visit to Russia all the more critical. Though the president
has nixed a formal one-on-one sitdown with Putin during the G-20
summit, he is expected to speak with the Russian leader on the
sidelines. Though he said Wednesday that U.S.-Russian relations have
"hit a wall," he said he'd continue to engage Putin.
"It
is not possible for Mr. Assad to regain legitimacy in a country where
he's killed tens of thousands of his own people," Obama said.
"So far, at least, Mr. Putin has rejected that logic."
Obama
added: "I'm always hopeful, and I will continue to engage him."
Obama's
challenge to change Putin's mind comes as China warns that any
military action against Syria will push up oil prices and hurt the
world economy.
Speaking
in St. Petersburg Thursday, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu
Guangyao said that "Military action would have a negative impact
on the global economy, especially on the oil price -- it will cause a
hike in the oil price," before citing estimates that a $10 rise
in oil prices could push down global growth by 0.25 percent. Guangyao
also urged a U.N.-negotiated solution to the chemical weapons
standoff. Like Russia, China is a major arms supplier to Syria and
holds veto power over any Security Council resolution.
The
White House went out of its way to say Obama would not hold bilateral
discussions with the Russian leader while in St. Petersburg. Instead,
Obama will formally meet on the summit's sidelines with the leaders
of France, China and Japan, though a senior administration official
said the two presidents will have a chance to speak.
Russia's
resistance is a key reason why the U.N. Security Council so far has
not gotten on board with U.S. calls for action in response to the
alleged chemical weapons strike against Syrian rebels on August 21.
Putin
has been among the loudest critics on the international stage of
Obama's push for a military strike in Syria. He reportedly blasted
the push on Wednesday as an "act of aggression." He has
said in recent interviews that a strike would be illegal if the
United Nations does not support it.
The
president said Wednesday there was far more than his own credibility
at stake in responding to the chemical weapons attack.
"I
didn't set a red line, the world set a red line," he said. "The
world set a red line when governments representing 98 percent of
world population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent."
He added that Congress set its own red line when it ratified the
treaty.
With
Obama in Europe, his top national security aides were to participate
Wednesday in public and private hearings at the Capitol to advance
their case for limited strikes in retaliation for what the
administration says was a deadly sarin gas attack by Assad's forces
in the eastern suburbs of Damascus.
The
Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 10-7 with one abstention to
authorize the use of force against Syria Wednesday, the first in a
series of votes as the president's request makes its way through
Senate and House committees before coming before the two chambers for
a final vote, probably sometime next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.