Russia Will Ship Weapons To Syria’s Assad Regime

Russia Will Ship Weapons To Syria’s Assad Regime

Efforts to bring the two sides to an understanding and end the two year long civil war in Syria, might have hit a stand still as Russia said it will deliver a shipment of modern anti-aircraft missiles to their old time ally and client.

The move is supposed to be a response to the European Union’s recent lift of the weapons embargo, enabling rebels to purchase weapons from western countries.

The United States and Russia have been proposing a peaceful resolution that would be drafted during talks in Geneva scheduled for the middle of July, however, the recent events may push peace talks and even cancel them all together.

Russian diplomats said that the European Union decision to not renew the weapon’s embargo is a direct move to help better arm rebels, thus throwing fuel on the fire and delaying a peaceful resolution.

The move also risks causing an arms race between Western states and Russia, a race that might not have a clear winner, but will have a definitive looser in the Syrian people.

The proposed peace talks in Geneva had hit a problem before the embargo news as Russia said that Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad would be willing to attend but only on the condition that Iran be invited to talks, a condition that met sturdy French opposition.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday May 29 2013, 2:22 AM EDT. Ref: WSJ. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0