Showdown over Syria
We will come to Syria’s aid if US attacks Assad, warns Putin
VLADIMIR Putin has warned that Russia would stand with Syria if the US launched military strikes against the country.
The Russian president promised to “help” Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the event of a US campaign, demonstrating the extent to which he and President Barack Obama failed to narrow their differences over the Syrian civil war during a tense G20 summit in St Petersburg, Russia, this week.
Obama and Putin could not even agree on the factual point of whether a majority of G20 members supported or opposed military action.
Obama said that most of the 19 countries represented at St Petersburg had backed the US position — and 11 duly signed a statement urging a “strong international response” to the poison gas attacks in Damascus.
Putin disputed this, pointing out that although UK Prime Minister David Cameron signed the statement, the British parliament’s vote against military action showed that he did not speak for his country.
Ending the summit, Putin said world opinion was firmly against US-led intervention, adding that Russia would take Syria’s side. “Will we help Syria? We will,” he said. “We are already helping, we send arms.”
Russia has been Syria’s biggest arms supplier, signing a contract to deliver the S300 air defence system. Some components are understood to have been delivered, although whether Russia has supplied everything is unclear.
In recent weeks, the Russian navy has sent three warships to the eastern Mediterranean. Russian reports suggest that a fourth vessel, carrying a “special cargo”, is now heading to the area.
When a journalist suggested that the G20 was evenly split over military action, Putin replied: “That is not quite right.” He listed only the US, Turkey, Canada, Saudi Arabia and France as countries supporting intervention. Putin added that Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, had remained “careful” on this issue. As for Cameron, the Russian president accepted that he supported a military strike, but added that the prime minister did not represent the “will of the people”.
Meanwhile, China, India, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa and Italy were all “against military action”, he said.
“Using force against a sovereign state can only be done in self-defence, and Syria is not attacking the US,” Putin said. “Those who do something different are placing themselves outside the law.”
Putin and Obama did not have a formal bilateral meeting during this summit and the US president unilaterally cancelled a planned meeting in Moscow. Instead, the two men had an informal conversation on the event’s margins.
“It was a constructive, meaningful, cordial conversation,” said Putin. It lasted 20 to 30 minutes and “each of us kept with our own opinion”.
“There is dialogue: we hear each other and understand the arguments. He [Obama] disagrees with my arguments, I disagree with his arguments, but we do hear, and we try to analyse.”
He added: “We cooperate in the economic sphere, we hope to expand our cooperation in the humanitarian sphere, which includes sending aid to support civilians who have found themselves in a very dire situation in this country.”
The divisions over Syria prevented agreement on a joint statement signed by all 19 countries — the 20th member is the European Union. Instead, one was signed by the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey.
Referring to the gas attacks in Damascus on August 21, it reads: “We call for a strong international response to this grave violation of the world’s rules and conscience that will send a clear message that this kind of atrocity can never be repeated. Those who perpetrated these crimes must be held accountable.” — © The Daily Telegraph, London