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June 17, 2013

Putin Rebukes U.S. on Aiding Rebels as G8 Begins 
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Syria is expected to dominate talks at today's G8 summit in Ireland. As
world leaders arrived today, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized
the U.S. for last week's decision to arm Syrian rebels, saying the aid
will go to fighters who eat human flesh. Putin was referring to an
infamous video that circulated last month of a Syrian rebel biting into
the organ of a dead Syrian soldier. At the United Nations, outgoing U.S.
Ambassador Susan Rice defended the decision to arm Syrian rebels and
played down speculation the U.S. will seek to impose a no-fly zone on
Syria.

Susan Rice: "Our intelligence community has high confidence that
chemical weapons, including sarin, have been used by the government
against the opposition on multiple occasions over the course of the last
year, on a small scale. On the issue of a no-fly zone, we have been
clear that we're not excluding options, but at this stage no decision
has been taken. And as my colleagues in Washington described at some
length yesterday, that option has some downsides and limitations that we
are very well aware of and will factor into any decision."

 

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