Russia Warns U.S. To Stay Clear Of Assad
Russia has delivered a behind-the-scenes threat to retaliate if airstrikes carried out by the U.S. or its allies target the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Middle Eastern security officials told this reporter.
The security officials said Russia complained Sunday in quiet talks with United Nations representatives that the Obama administration’s current aerial campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria is a violation of international agreements regarding control of Syrian airspace.
The officials said Russia warned it could potentially retaliate if U.S. or Arab airstrikes go beyond targeting Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and instead bomb Syrian regime targets.
The officials said they do not have any information on the seriousness of the Russian threat or whether Moscow meant it would retaliate directly or aid Assad’s air force in a military response.
The officials said Russian diplomats asserted terms regarding Syrian airspace were agreed upon last September as part of a sweeping deal to disarm Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons by the middle of 2014.
At the time, the international community feared Assad could target chemical weapons inspectors acting in Syria. That fear in part lead to a deal in which Moscow says it was provided with significant responsibility over the skies of Syria, purportedly to insure against Assad’s air force acting against the international disarmament effort.
The officials further said that both the Russia and Iranian militaries are on heightened alert amid the ongoing situation in Syria.
On Saturday, U.S.-led coalition warplanes for the first time reportedly struck ISIS targets in Syria near the Turkish border as well as positions in the east of the country, according to activists and a Kurdish officials speaking to the Associated Press.
More Lies About Benghazi
Hillary Clinton’s team and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta may be misleading the public about a 2012 plan they reportedly concocted to arm the Syrian rebels.
Bill Clinton and Panetta both claimed this week that the plan was not implemented when it was first presented to Obama in a 2012 meeting. In the meeting, Hillary Clinton, Panetta, CIA Director David Petraeus, and the joint chiefs chairman all expressed support for covertly arming the Syrian rebels.
However, this reporter’s recently released book The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don’t Want You to Know documents that the Clinton-Petraeus-Panetta plan was indeed covertly implemented more than two years ago and was one of the central activities transpiring at the attacked U.S. special mission in Benghazi.
The book cites evidence that the U.S. special mission in Benghazi and the nearby CIA annex were utilized, in part, to coordinate arms shipments to the jihadist rebels fighting the Syrian regime, with Ambassador Christopher Stevens playing a central role.
The activities, which included a separate, unprecedented multi-million-dollar weapons collection effort from Libyan militias who did not want to give up their weapons, may have prompted the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, charges the new book.
Until the end of April 2013, however, the White House repeatedly denied it was involved in helping to arm the Syrian rebels.
In an interview on CNN on Sunday, Bill Clinton noted he supported the 2012 plan by his wife, Panetta, and then-CIA Director David Petraeus to arm the Syrian rebels.
Bill Clinton claimed the plan was overruled by Obama over concern that U.S. weapons could fall into the wrong hands.
That claim was echoed by Panetta, who said during an interview on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” this week that he was in support of arming the moderate Syrian rebels in 2012 but the plan was never put into action.