State Dept Ducks Question of Syrian Scuds, Accuses Them of Giving ‘Missiles’ to Hezbollah

Official Claims Serious Concerns Over Syria-Hezbollah Ties

The US seems to have abandoned its damage control over condemning Syria earlier this week of providing Hezbollah with Scud missiles, a claim they later admitted probably wasn’t actually true. Now, they’re back in attack mode.

An unnamed senior official in the State Department today chastised Syria for providing a “wider array” of missiles to Hezbollah, though he was careful to avoid any specific details of what sort of missiles they are supposed to be.

The official also explicitly ducked the question of Scuds, saying only that it was something “to watch carefully.” Israel made the allegation last week, and it was seized upon by the Obama Administration immediately, and only later did they attempt to find out if it was true.

On Wednesday the State Department even claimed that “all options are on the table” with respect to retaliating against Syria for the Scuds, though by this point it was already increasingly obvious that they had no evidence.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.