Russia: US Should Stop Getting In the Way of Syria Fight

General: US Trying to Conceal Its Own Failures

While European officials expressed a lot of uncertainty over reports that Russia may have shipped jet fuel to their own air force in Syria, docking in an EU port along the way, and potentially violating EU sanctions in doing so, the US State Department responded with a statement of condemnation against Russia.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov responded angrily, insisting that in the US doesn’t intend to fight terrorists in Syria they should at least get out of the way and let Russia do it.

Konashenkov went on to say that the US policy is to repeatedly hamper Russia’s ability to fight terrorism, as an effort to conceal their own failures. The US has repeatedly condemned Russia for carrying out airstrikes against al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front and its territory.

The State Department insists EU sanctions were violated because the jet fuel Russia shipped is to be used for airstrikes, but Russia insists that the EU ban was only on giving jet fuel to Syria’s Air Force, and that there was no restriction on Russia fueling their own planes. EU officials have not offered any clarification.

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.