Russia Increases Syria Arms While Joining Push for Talks
By Terry Atlas - Oct 31, 2013
Russia has increased its weapons shipments to the Syrian government in the past year, complicating efforts to start peace talks, the U.S. ambassador to Syria said today.
Ambassador Robert Ford today called the Russian military aid “substantial” and in some cases “militarily extremely significant.” A second U.S. official, Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman, said the Russian aid is now more important than the weapons provided to President Bashar al-Assad’s forces by Iran.
While he didn’t provide details, Ford made clear that Russia’s action are a cause for tension between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The diplomats speak several times a week in efforts to prepare for peace talks in Geneva as soon as next month, Ford told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“We have had, including at the level of the secretary, a lot of discussion with the Russians” about the arms shipments, Ford said. “The Russians would help everyone get to the negotiating table faster if they would stop these deliveries.”
Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said the U.S. is in an “Orwellian situation” in which Russia cooperates on eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons while increasing the quantity and quality of the conventional weapons in the hands of Assad’s forces.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-31/russia-increases-syria-arms-while-joining-push-for-talks.html
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