Panetta: Syria No-fly Zone Not on Front Burner
Local Editor
Confusion governs the US administration on Syria and particularly the issue of no fly-zone.
US War Secretary Leon Panetta stressed Monday that "plans to set up a no-fly zone over parts of Syria are not on the front burner."
In an interview with The Associated Press, Panetta said he is confident the US could successfully enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, but doing so would require a "major, major policy decision" that has not yet been made.
"We have planned for a number of contingencies that could take place and one of those possible contingencies is developing a no-fly zone. But we've also pointed out difficulties in being able to implement that," Panetta said. "It's not on the front burner as far as I know."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said recently that Washington and Turkey are discussing a range of steps, including a no-fly zone over some parts of Syria.
Currently, Panetta said, "the US is focused on ensuring chemical and biological weapons in Syria are secure and on providing humanitarian and non-lethal assistance to the rebels."
In other comments, Panetta said the US is providing additional military assistance to peacekeeping forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in order to strengthen security in the region. But he said that so far the Pentagon has not moved to send additional US troops to the Sinai. A truck-mounted tracking system sent to the Sinai will allow troops to follow friendly forces.
"We just want to make sure that we know how those forces are deployed in order to ensure that we can more effectively go after those terrorists that would try to create an incident or terrorist act," Panetta said.
Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
Confusion governs the US administration on Syria and particularly the issue of no fly-zone.
US War Secretary Leon Panetta stressed Monday that "plans to set up a no-fly zone over parts of Syria are not on the front burner."In an interview with The Associated Press, Panetta said he is confident the US could successfully enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, but doing so would require a "major, major policy decision" that has not yet been made.
"We have planned for a number of contingencies that could take place and one of those possible contingencies is developing a no-fly zone. But we've also pointed out difficulties in being able to implement that," Panetta said. "It's not on the front burner as far as I know."
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said recently that Washington and Turkey are discussing a range of steps, including a no-fly zone over some parts of Syria.
Currently, Panetta said, "the US is focused on ensuring chemical and biological weapons in Syria are secure and on providing humanitarian and non-lethal assistance to the rebels."
In other comments, Panetta said the US is providing additional military assistance to peacekeeping forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula in order to strengthen security in the region. But he said that so far the Pentagon has not moved to send additional US troops to the Sinai. A truck-mounted tracking system sent to the Sinai will allow troops to follow friendly forces.
"We just want to make sure that we know how those forces are deployed in order to ensure that we can more effectively go after those terrorists that would try to create an incident or terrorist act," Panetta said.
Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org
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