Putin warns against U.S. strike on Syria in NYT op-ed. 12/09/2013.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Wednesday against a U.S. strike on Syria, saying such action risked escalating the conflict beyond that country and unleashing terrorist attacks.
Writing in the New York Times, Putin said there were “few champions of democracy” in the 2 1/2-year-old civil war in Syria, “but there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all types battling the government.”
Putin cautioned against taking military action without UN Security Council authorization, saying, “We must stop using the language of force.”
“A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism,” he added. “It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance.”
Putin said it was alarming that intervening militarily in foreign countries’ internal conflicts had become “commonplace” for the United States.
“Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy, but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan ‘you’re either with us or against us.’”
“We must work together to keep this hope alive, as we agreed to at the Group of 8 meeting in Lough Erne in Northern Ireland in June, and steer the discussion back toward negotiations.”
