PRESS RELEASE
Kujat Warns Against NATO Intervention into Syria, AWACS Aimed at Russia
June 2, 2016 (EIRNS)—President Obama’s special envoy for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria and Iraq, Brett McGurk, has called for NATO to deploy its surveillance aircraft in Syria in operations against ISIS, an obvious ploy to get NATO directly involved in operations in Syria. Such was the assessment of retired German Gen. Harald Kujat, former Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee (2002-05) and former Bundeswehr Chief of General Staff (2000-02).
Referencing McGurk’s proposal, General Kujat told Sputnik, "It is a pretext. It is really about making NATO part of the Syrian operation." He went on to warn that a NATO intervention into Syria could create military precedents detached from its political line at the time, and could endanger the existing Syrian peace process. "This creates risks, because negotiations are very unstable," Kujat said.
On May 19, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, after a North Atlantic Council meeting, that member states were considering sending AWACS into the theater of operations. Since AWACS are primarily used to track aircraft and sophisticated electronic weapon systems, radars, and the like, none of which are in the hands of the terrorists, their deployment is rather obviously aimed at targeting the Russians and Syrians.
