Obama Administration Threatens Russia With ‘Confrontation’ Unless Putin Backs Down on Syria

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a Sept. 4 telephone conversation, that reported Russian military activity to support the Assad government in Syria against ISIS could lead to a “confrontation.” According to the State Department read-out,

The London Telegraph takes note of the fact that President Obama met with King Salman of Saudi Arabia in Washington on Sept. 3, and a central topic of discussion was the Syria situation. The two British toadies met, the Telegraph reported, “to repeat their demand that any lasting settlement in Syria would require an end to the Assad regime. It leaves the U.S. and Russia implacably opposed in their visions for Syria.”

Reuters’ coverage similarly noted that there is a “seemingly unbridgeable international divide over President Bashar al- Assad’s future,” and quotes an unnamed senior Russia diplomatic source saying: “Proposals by our partners for the change of regime in Damascus are illegitimate. They only say Assad must go —and then what? I don’t think they have any idea. There used to be no terrorists in Iraq, the same in Libya. And now the Libyan state has fallen apart and the terrorists are roaming there.”