PRESS RELEASE
Lavrov Repeats Warning: No-Fly Zone
Over Syria Violates International Law
Feb. 15, 2014 (EIRNS)—Responding to threats to the Bashar al-Assad's Syrian government issued by the U.S. President Barack Obama following his meeting with Jordanian King Abdullah in California Feb. 14, Lebanon's Al Manar TV reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov once more asserted that imposing a no-fly zone over Syria, using F-16 jets and Patriot rockets via Jordan, violates the international law. The U.S. has sent a number of Patriot rockets and F-16 jets to Jordan in order to launch annual military maneuvers.
Last June when the United States moved Patriot missiles and F-16 fighter jets to Jordan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had warned that any attempt to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria using U.S. fighter jets and missiles operating from Jordan would violate international law.
At the time, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey said in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee that imposing a no-fly zone over Syria would cost as much as $1 billion a month and put U.S. aircraft at risk of being shot down without necessarily toppling Assad's government. At a press briefing June 16, Dempsey said a no-fly zone was an "act of war."
In addition, last July, in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph, his last before standing down as Chief of Defense Staff, Gen. Sir David Richards, said that in order for a no-fly zone to work, all of Syria's air defenses would need to be taken out, which would be tantamount to "declaring war" on the country.
Yet, the bellicose tone of the Obama administration in the wake of the first rounds of the Geneva II talks, are clearly pushing toward military action, and the Russians are being clear: they will not capitulate.
