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 (36)


  • Add A Comment

  • CH wrote...
    here we go again - WMD . . . .
    December 3, 2012 5:03 pm
    republicans will find some thing wrong with the 4 sure.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • It's me! Ha ha! wrote...
    What will your Dear Leader do?
    December 4, 2012 5:39 am
    Nothing! Not a thing other than threats! And America's enemies know this.

    Parrots, remember you voted for this and you got it!

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • cigarfan wrote...
    @Lord Ha ha!
    May 2, 2013 2:37 pm
    Do you ever go beyond comments that are no deeper than a bird bath? Why don't you spend your time discussing the subject at hand in detail?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • CldWtrSrf wrote...
    Good to see it's me is still a War Monger just like
    December 4, 2012 6:49 am
    Obama is. Syria ISN'T fighting a Civil War dummy. They are fighting off Al Qaeda that Obama and the United States are FUNDING and ARMING!! So, America is using the very same Terrorist that they created and used against the Russians, in Bosnia, in Libya then airlifted to Turkey to use in Syria, all the while telling us that we have to give up our RIGHTS so that they can "keep us safe" from those dirty Al Qaeda that actually work for the Pentagon/CIA/U.S. Government. SICKENING!!!! And all you "Good 'Ol Boys" eat it up just like the Obama drones do because it's "their" guy doing it now instead that evil Bush. What a Shed of TOOLS you all are. Wake up and get your heads out of the sand, especially you It's me, CH and longway are lost causes, don't be as moronic as they are.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • wsualumn wrote...
    CldWtrSrf
    January 10, 2013 10:12 pm
    Do you happen to be Alex Jones? You are claiming that we are in "cahoots" with Al Qaeda? So why did we allow them to crash planes into the Twin Towers? You are telling other to get their heads out of the sand and not be moronic? For some strange reason, paranoid is entering my mind when it comes to you.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rangerhawk wrote...
    Maybe we should send in some Iraqi Kurds to investigate
    March 19, 2013 7:24 pm
    They know a thing or two about WMD's
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • maplefish wrote...
    What a frighin mess
    March 19, 2013 9:16 pm
    And Obama is so weak that he actualky thinks Al Qaeda is on the run...HAHAHAhA . Anybody remember the Spring of Democracy? I wonder what label the morons on the Left will come up with this year? I ave a feeling we're headed back into another Summer of Jihad....wonder if the Muslim Brotherhood will come to the rescue with ll the new fighter jets and $250 million in aid we tax Anerican Tax Payers just friiggin handed them.... And Obama closes the White House. Anybody????Good God, this country is being run by EF ing IDIOTS!!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Hayduke wrote...
    CldWtrSrf, you want to know what the difference is between Bush and Obama?
    March 20, 2013 10:08 am
    I only ask you this because apparently now Bush is on the table for discussion, since you compared him to Obama. The rest of the time, we're not allowed by you right-wingers to bring up that sorry recent history, are we. You'd all rather sweep it under the rug.

    But I digress. So what's the difference?

    Obama doesn't make stuff up to start a war.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Hayduke wrote...
    Funny you should say that XCOP, because it's the ten year anniversary of the Iraq war.
    March 21, 2013 12:00 pm
    And as it happens, there's plenty of information to be found on how they cooked the intel.

    For example, here's a 5 minute video of a CIA WMD analyst talking about just that. She has just now gone public with this, I'm guessing because she saw what was done to her colleague Valerie Plame by Cheney and Scooter Libby:

    http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/archive/segment/ex-cia-analyst%3A-i-tried-to-make-iraq-war-intelligence-less-bogus/5148f0702b8c2a28e200014c

    In particular, Cheney visited the Pentagon to cherry pick raw intel to try to justify the war. Normally, your supposed to shape policy around the facts. But with the Bush WH, it was the other way around. But I guess those at the CIA who speak out are just CoolAid drinkers too?

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Looks like Barry is involving us in ANOTHER war.
    March 25, 2013 1:53 pm
    It's Owebama's fault.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Brian Oblivion wrote...
    The entire population of the middle east
    March 25, 2013 2:09 pm
    save Israel is not worth one drop of American blood. I'm very conservative but totally against any invasion of foreign lands by us. That includes Viet Nam, Desert Storm, Iraq, Afcrapistan, Libya, Syria and the rest of Mordor. By the way, CONGRESS voted to invade Iraq, and this neocon nation building crap has to end. It's like trying to put makeup on a pig - doesn't help, and annoys the pig.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Fantastic.
    April 10, 2013 7:58 am
    Send more of my money to Arabs that hate us. Good job.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }