US opposes Russia arms sales to Syria

US Secretary of State John Kerry speaks at a press conference during an official visit to Rome yesterday.

Reuters/RomeThe US does not want Russia to sell weapons to Syria and has opposed transfers of missile systems to the country in the past because of the threat to Israel, US Secretary of State John Kerry said yesterday.Kerry did not directly respond to a newspaper report Russia was poised to sell new advanced ground-to-air missiles to the Syrian government, apparently worried it might undercut a diplomatic effort to end the two-year-long civil war.Asked about the report, Kerry said the US has opposed arms deals in the past.“I think we have made it crystal clear we would prefer that Russia was not supplying assistance,” Kerry said at a news conference after meeting Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino.The Wall Street Journal earlier this week reported that Israel had informed the US a Russian deal is imminent to sell advanced ground-to-air missiles that would significantly boost Syria’s ability to stave off intervention in the conflict.The newspaper quoted US officials as saying they were analysing the information, but would not comment on whether they believed the sale of S-300 missile batteries was near.Pressed about the report, Kerry suggested he may have raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, whom he met in Moscow on Tuesday.After those meetings, the two countries agreed to seek new peace talks to end the conflict.“I had my say with President Putin and I had my say with Sergey Lavrov and we made an agreement to go to a negotiation in the next days and I am not going to get into here, now, at this moment, as I said, distinguishing features between one country’s aid and another country’s aid and who’s doing what,” he said.“That would be counterproductive to what we are trying to accomplish,” he added.The White House also sidestepped the issue.“We are aware of the reports. But I have no further information for you on it. We have consistently called on Russia to cut off the Assad regime’s supply of Russian weapons, including air defence systems that are destabilising to the region,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One as US President Barack Obama headed to Texas.Yesterday, Kerry said the US was grateful to Russia for its willingness to work with the US to try to bring the Syrian government and rebels seeking to topple it to an international conference to negotiate an end to the war.He suggested the meeting could take place in Geneva, where Moscow and Washington last year agreed on a framework to try to end the war by creating a transitional government in Syria, but diplomacy has foundered since.

Brahimi agrees to stay onThe UN-Arab League mediator in the Syria conflict, Lakhdar Brahimi, has agreed to stay on despite his frustration at the international deadlock that has prevented UN action to halt the two-year-old civil war, the UN said yesterday.A dispute over Syria between Russia, which supports and provides weapons to the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and the US, which says Assad must go and backs the rebels, has left the UN Security Council paralysed.But in recent days Russia and the US agreed to seek new peace talks that would bring together Assad’s government and the rebels in an attempt to push for a diplomatic resolution of Syria’s civil war.It is a move the UN praised as long overdue.