US slams Russian anti-ship missiles going to Syria

May 17, 2013 @ 1:28 pm


Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, left, accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey, gestures as he speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Friday, May 17, 2013. The Obama administration is criticizing Russia's decision to provide Syria with anti-ship missiles, which it says will only worsen the civil war. Dempsey said the missiles will embolden Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and "prolong the suffering." (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) | Zoom

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration denounced Russia on Friday for providing Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime with anti-ship missiles, saying the weapons would only worsen a war that Washington and Moscow have been promising to work together on stopping.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticized what he called an "unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering." He spoke at a news conference after the New York Times reported that Russia recently delivered an advanced version of Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria.

"It's ill-timed and very unfortunate," Dempsey said.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel also urged Russia to rethink its military aid, saying that the U.S. and Russia both wanted to stabilize Syria after more than two years of civil war but that the Kremlin's military support makes the situation even more dangerous.

"What we don't want to see happen, the Russians don't want to see happen, is for Syria to erupt to the point where we may well find a regional war in the Middle East," Hagel said.

"So we continue to work with the Russians on their interests and everything we can do to convince the powers that are involved in the region to be careful with escalation of military options and equipment," he said, adding that the U.S. was planning for every military contingency.

Dempsey's comments, in particular, seemed to contradict that of the State Department, where spokeswoman Jen Psaki said earlier Friday that the U.S. was aware of no "new shipments" of the weapons.

For the Obama administration, the anti-ship missiles are the second such worrying report in as many weeks at a time when Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov say they are coordinating closely to try to get Syria's government and rebels into the start of a peace negotiation. They are hoping the talks begin next month in Geneva.

Almost immediately after last week's announcement by Kerry and Lavrov of a new peace push, Israeli officials warned that Moscow was preparing to give Assad state-of-the-art ground-to-air missile systems in the coming months.

Both sets of missiles would only add to the administration's reservations as it evaluates a range of options, including military ones, to break the stalemate in Syria's civil war and respond to evidence that Assad's forces used small amounts of chemical weapons in two attacks in March. Obama previously declared chemical weapons use his "red line" for a more forceful American intervention, though Kerry and other U.S. officials have since suggested that no such step would be taken while the new peace push still has hope.

The cruise missiles and the new surface-to-air batteries would significantly upgrade the Assad regime's capacity to target manned planes, drones and incoming missiles after its systems were easily circumvented in 2007 when Israeli jets bombed a suspected nuclear reactor site along the Euphrates River in northeastern Syria.

Apparently successful Israeli strikes in recent weeks on weapons convoys to Hezbollah show the Syrian defenses are still far from impregnable, but the new weaponry would make it harder for United States to consider enforcing a no-fly zone in the country or otherwise intervening militarily.

Dempsey also warned specifically about the surface-to-air missiles, saying they provide Syria with defenses at higher altitude and longer range, and with better tracking capability.

"It pushes the standoff distance a little more, increases risk, but not impossible to overcome," he told reporters. "What I really worry about is that Assad will decide that since he's got these systems, he's somehow safer and more prone to a miscalculation."


(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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Comments (27)


  • Add A Comment

  • C"mon Man wrote...
    Let's face it
    May 10, 2011 8:46 pm
    While President Obama take's a victory lap at ground zero,syrian folk's are dying, and nobody knows the gameplan in Libya. Let's face it, iraq,afghanistan,pakistan,egypt,syria, and iran are failures of Bush and Obama. I don't know what we are doing in afghanistan or iraq(bush) or libya Obama.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    Because he only wanted the position
    August 12, 2011 7:37 pm
    Not the responsibility. Cry me a river, gutless (so called leader) If in the private sector, he would have been fired in 90 day's. He is about as good as a leader, as his WRITTEN form to cut the spending. N O N E ????? (sorry to hit home) A LEADER IS WHAT WE NEED, Move right =, left, or get the h-ll out of the way. wish, dream, hope, thought,FELT, studied, should have, All words that get you NO WHERE.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • vashonmatt wrote...
    No, he would not have been fired.
    October 24, 2011 4:24 pm
    He would have fired McConnel, and Boehner and got something done. He would not have put up with what the right is pulling off for one second. Do you realize that almost everything Obama wants to do to bring this country out of this mess, most Republicans were for. They are doing everything they can to get Obama out of office, at the expense of America to protect the super rich that pay to get them elected. America is not that dunb, and Obama will be re-elected.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • murr wrote...
    Speaking of shutting taps
    August 12, 2011 7:41 pm
    While she will take the escalator to the top from the biggest tap that spewed ?????? Smiles Monica
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • C"mon Man wrote...
    PC
    August 15, 2011 9:51 pm
    While several innocent syrians die.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hnuh wrote...
    Weak
    August 18, 2011 8:04 am
    weak, weak. 0bama and the apology tour, having the chain put around his neck by the Saud, bowind and scraping before tyrants, broken and failing foreign policy, deliberate dismissal of American power; a moslem who responds to an unwelcome demand by any mere woman is universally seen as a weakling. Just having "the old woman of malice" making demands on Assad fortifies his determination to remain, consequences to his people unimportant in the least.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    Hillary is looking pretty good these days
    August 18, 2011 8:15 pm
    For a mature woman she has done well with her looks.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    What looks?
    April 13, 2012 3:08 pm
    Like all liberal women...attractive she's not and never has been.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hnuh wrote...
    longway....
    August 24, 2011 5:18 pm
    eww... you go the "gilf" way?... eewww...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CldWtrSrf wrote...
    Why are we getting involved in another country's
    August 31, 2011 11:06 am
    problems? Haven't we done that enough already? Let those people rise up and overthrow the government if they feel they need to. Do it without the CIA and MI6 meddling in the affairs. That's who is really stirring all this up. How about American's go out and start protesting every day? They are arresting people in D.C. for protesting against Obama letting the banks off the hook. Where's the outcry for that? Obama will do the same thing all these other dictators do if he feels that he is loosing control.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • longwayhome wrote...
    Posts date back to May!
    January 20, 2012 8:09 pm
    C'mon you guys, let's get current with the news.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • C"mon Man wrote...
    You go girl !
    January 30, 2012 12:49 pm
    I'm with you,just like I was in the 2008 primary. Please nobody equate my opinion as a war drum that is calling for another invasion, we've all seen that movie before.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }