U.S. could be directly involved in crisis in Syria – Pushkov

MOSCOW,(ST)-Providing military assistance to Syria’s “opposition” is a path toward Washington’s direct involvement in the crisis in  Syria, Russian State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov said, according to Voice of Russia.

“I will not be surprised if a certain period of time after the arms embargo is lifted, we will see steps that will mean U.S. direct involvement in this conflict,” Pushkov said.

U.S. weapons supplies to “insurgents” in Syria are unlikely to cause any drastic changes in the balance of power in the Syrian conflict, especially as this balance has recently turned in favor of the Syrian government, he said.

“If the “insurgents” in Syria prove unable to resolutely defeat the Syrian government, the U.S. administration will embark on a path of escalating military involvement in the conflict,” he said.

This information alleging the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government cannot be treated as reliable, he said.

“There is no evidence that the government of Syria used them. I believe that the most probable scenario is the following: these weapons were used by the “insurgents “in Syria in order to provoke an international investigation and accuse the Syrian  government of it,” the Russian parliamentarian said.

Claims that the Syrian government used chemical weapons cannot be trusted after what happened in 2003, when “a whole war was based on the monumental lies about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” Pushkov said.

“I have a feeling that it is a planned action as certain circles in the U.S. want Obama to boost U.S. involvement in the crisis in Syria,” he said. Pushkov said he would not be surprised if the U.S. president eventually bowed to this pressure. The Iraqi scenario is being repeated in Syria, he added.

Sending US arms to Syrian opposition may result in direct military intervention – MP

US arms deliveries to the Syrian “opposition” will hardly result in an overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime, says the Chairman of the Russian Duma International Affairs Committee, Alexei Pushkov, in an interview with the ITAR-TASS news agency.

 “the Syrian government  relies on the support of a large, if not the larger part of the population, and this is his important reserve. The Syrian  Army has displayed on numerous occasions that it is quite resistive. The US will hardly manage to drastically change the correlation of forces just by boosting its arms shipments for the “opposition” Pushkov says. 

Hence the question, he says, just what will the US do next? “I believe”, Pushkov says, the US will follow the path of escalation in hostilities. Now it is arming the “rebels”, then it will decide on some form of direct internal invasion. Nor can we rule out airstrikes with the use of cruise missiles, coupled with a direct military invasion, provided the previous measures prove fruitless”, the Chairman of the Duma International Affairs Committee said.

M.D