Moscow Warns Washington against Striking Syrian Army Forces

Vladimir Putin attends Seliger 2014 National Youth Forum...epa04374013 Russian President Vladimir Putin talks during the Seliger 2014 National Youth Forum in the Tver Region, Russia, 29 August 2014. Russia will not be drawn into a large-scale conflict, but will fend off any aggression against itself, President Vladimir Putin said on 29 August 2014. EPA/MIKHAIL KLIMENTIEV / RIA NOVOSTI / KREMLIN POOL

SHAFAQNA – President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that an attempt to topple the Syrian govement “wouldn’t help a successful fight against terrorism and could plunge the region into total chaos.”

Peskov made the statement while asked to comment about an inteal document in which dozens of US State Department employees called for military action against the Syrian Army.

This comes as the US administration sought Friday to contain fallout from the leaked inteal memo, but showed no sign it was willing to consider military strikes against the Syrian army.
Several US officials said that while the White House is prepared to hear the diplomats’ dissenting viewpoint, it is not expected to spur any changes in President Barack Obama’s approach to Syria in his final seven months in office.

One senior official said that the test for whether these proposals for more aggressive action are given high-level consideration will be whether they “fall in line with our contention that there is no military solution to the conflict in Syria.”

The document was sent through the State Department’s “dissent channel,” a conduit for voicing contrary opinions meant to be classified.

White House spokeswoman Jen Friedman said Obama is open to a “robust discussion” on Syria but she insisted that deliberations by Obama’s national security team have already taken a very close look at a range of options.

A former senior US official said the unauthorized disclosure of a confidential cable of this type “corrodes the trust between the president and those who serve him.” Other US officials pointed out that the cable does not carry the signatures of any senior State Department officials, such as assistant or deputy secretaries or ambassadors.