Russia offers more aid to Syria; move could worsen migrants crisis
Russia said Thursday it is sending military supplies, advisers and humanitarian assistance to Syria and will send additional aid if asked, raising U.S. concerns it will escalate the civil war and send more migrants to Europe.
The supplies include advanced armored personnel carriers, grenade launchers, trucks and ammunition, Russia’s Kom
mersant newspaper reported Thursday.
“Russia is airlifting military products to Syria under the effective contracts, as well as humanitarian assistance,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, according to the official Tass news agency.
Lavrov said Russian military personnel have been in Syria “for many years,” to train and support forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in the country’s four-year civil war. Russia will consider additional steps “exclusively at the request and with the consent of the Syrian government or other countries in the region, if the talk is about assistance or the struggle against terrorism,” Lavrov said.
Russia’s support for Assad pits Moscow against U.S. policy, which favors his departure, although President Obama has not taken any direct military steps to oust him. Instead, the administration has been training a band of so-called moderate rebels to combat the Islamic State.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that Moscow supports the Syrian army because there are no other credible groups that could defeat militants in that country, according to Russia’s Pravda news site. Peskov said Russia will discuss the issue at the U.N. General Assembly this month in New York City.
Russia’s move comes after Bulgaria and Ukraine this week closed their airspace to Russian flights to Syria to stop any Russian military buildup there. Greece announced Monday it received an American request to deny Syria-bound Russian flights over its airspace. Iran, Assad’s other major ally, has agreed to allow Russian flights to Syria.
Three Russian transport planes landed this week in Syria and off-loaded supplies in the Assad stronghold of Latakia, unnamed U.S. officials told media.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called Lavrov on Wednesday to warn that Russian military support in Syria for the Assad regime would worsen the civil war, lead to more deaths and increase the flow of refugees, the State Department said.
“Russia is airlifting military products to Syria under the effective contracts, as well as humanitarian assistance.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov