CFR Update 5/28 Russia Delivers Arms to Syria to Prevent Intervention

Daily News Brief May 28, 2013

Top of the Agenda: Russia Delivers Arms to Syria to Prevent Intervention

Russia said it would deliver anti-aircraft missiles to Syria (BBC) in a bid to deter foreign intervention in the country's civil war, criticizing a Monday decision by the EU not to renew an arms embargo on the Syrian opposition. The escalation comes just as key countries prepare for a major peace conference in Geneva that observers view as the best chance yet to end the two-year bloodshed, which has killed more than eighty thousand people. In response to Russia's statement, Israel signaled that its military was prepared to strike (AP) said shipments of weapons, fearing the missiles could end up in the hands of groups like Hezbollah.

Analysis

"For now, the direction London and Paris are going in is correct. The moderate forces opposing the Assad regime have been left high and dry in this conflict. Providing weapons will give these forces the currency of influence," writes an editorial for the Financial Times.

"What has changed, as Oxfam among others has warned, is that by fuelling the conflict by sending yet more weapons to the combatants, Britain and France risk stoking a further rapid and potentially disastrous escalation; risk adding to the appalling toll of 80,000 people dead and millions displaced; and risk shooting down and killing off the already enfeebled diplomatic process they seek to sustain," writes Simon Tisdall for The Guardian.

"Geopolitics means that Russia does not have strong military and economic relations with Syria, but the fact that it lost contracts worth billions of dollars with Iran and Libya pushed its regime to use the veto, in the hope of compensating for the losses. The same goes for China, Iran and America," says Akram Khuzam in an interview with El-Khabar.

Washington Calls for Deeper China Military Ties

U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon called for deeper military ties (Reuters) with China on Tuesday, saying the two countries needed closer collaboration in areas like peacekeeping, disaster relief, and combating piracy. The remarks come two weeks before a summit between the U.S. and Chinese presidents in California.

CFR's Adam Segal leads a conversation on U.S.-China relations through the lens of cybersecurity as part of CFR's Academic Conference Call series.

AUSTRALIA: Australia's foreign minister said its relationship with China would not be damaged by fresh allegations of cyber warfare (FT) by Chinese hackers on Australia's new spy headquarters.