Russia give heads-up on the latest plan for a NATO ‘No-Fly Zone’ over Syria, with Turkey rumored to be providing main strike force
CATRINA STEWART
The Independent
January 13, 2012
Russia has claimed that Nato is preparing to impose a no-fly zone in Syria to protect rebel fighters, a move that would dramatically escalate the 10-month uprising.
Nikolai Patrushev, who heads the Kremlin’s security council, said that he had received intelligence suggesting that the military alliance is planning a Libya-style intervention, a step that Moscow has repeatedly warned the international community against.
“We are getting information that Nato members and some Persian Gulf states intend… direct military intervention,” the confidant of premier Vladimir Putin told Russia’s Kommersant newspaper.
The claims, however, were immediately denied by Nato. Spokeswoman Carmen Romero told Bloomberg that there was, “no discussion of a Nato role with respect to Syria”. A number of Nato members also denied Mr Patrushev’s claims.
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