Russian Pundits Concerned About Establishing No Fly Zone Over Syria

(RIA Novosti – May 30, 2013) Establishing a no-fly zone over Syria will be the beginning of the aggression of the USA and its allies against that country, Igor Korotchenko, head of the Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade, has said as reported by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti on 30 May.

“Establishing a no-fly zone is a prelude to the aggression of the USA and its allies against Syria because this notion is practically being interpreted in a broader sense now. For example, as to the situation in Libya, Americans delivered air and missile strikes on an airfield of the Libyan Air Force right away and destroyed aircraft. Then they destroyed radar airspace control systems and delivered strikes on air defence facilities,” Korotchenko said.

Establishing no-fly zones is a “tried and tested scenario” that was initially used in Iraq, later implemented in Libya and is being considered as a possible measure against Syria, he added.

According to Korotchenko, after a no-fly zone is introduced in Syria, there may follow strikes of high-precision weapons, particularly Tomahawks, on airfields of the Syrian Air Force to bring them out of operation.

“Simultaneously, strikes on air defence facilities will follow. Then, a war scenario will be carried out. The Syrian Air Force and air defence will not be able to operate in this zone and will be destroyed,” Korotchenko said.

Ahead of the peace conference on Syria, these actions of the USA may be regarded as disruption of this event, just like the EU decision to lift the ban on supplying arms to Syrian rebel fighters, he added.

“Supplying S-300 missiles to Syria will be the most effective way to counteract these plans. It is a powerful, effective and long-range system that will make it possible to thwart any actions on the part of potential air aggressor. Since military hostilities against Syria may become a reality, I believe that Russia should take military-political steps and fully implement its obligations under the contract to supply missiles to Syria. In fact, the S-300 system is a peacekeeping weapon and it will not fall victim to unpunished aggression,” Korotchenko said.

Commenting on the US statement about possibility of establishing a no-fly zone over Syria, Vladimir Sotnikov, senior researcher at the International Security Centre of the World Economy and International Relations Institute, has said that this may be propaganda aimed at checking the reaction of Russia and China, RIA Novosti said in a separate report on 30 May.

“This resembles some propaganda they resorted to in order to see how Moscow, Beijing and the international community will react. Making a statement is one thing and implementing it is something different: they have to push it through the US Congress, achieve an agreement with European allies and convince the UN Security Council,” Sotnikov said.

“This will be most likely carried out by European allies, some countries that not long ago dealt with the embargo on arms supplies to the Syrian opposition. This scenario resembles Libya,” he added.

For her part, the head of the Asia and Middle East Centre of the Russian Strategic Research Institute, Yelena Suponina, believes that the US statement on the possible establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria means that little time remains to solve the conflict peacefully and military intervention is not ruled out.

“Although a military scenario is not ruled out, there is still time for a peaceful solution of the crisis. There is no much time, two or three months. Americans themselves and European countries are speaking about this. When making a decision on lifting the embargo on arms supplies to the opposition, they said the supplies would not be carried out until August,” Suponina said.