Reports:
A number of Western-backed Arab dictatorships have offered to lend their war jets to back US President Barack Obama’s plan for possible airstrikes on Syria, despite Damascus’ warnings that any attack on its soil constitutes a violation of its sovereignty and will be considered an act of aggression.
On Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Arab leaders in a meeting in Saudi Arabia to support Obama’s plans for military operations in the region against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which include greater overflight rights for US warplanes, airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, and training and arming the so-called “moderate” Syrian rebels inside Saudi territory.
Ten Arab states, including Wahhabi Saudi Arabia, agreed to rally behind Washington in the fight against ISIS
“I don’t want to leave you with the impression that these Arab members haven’t offered to do airstrikes because several of them have,” a senior US State Department official told reporters in Paris on Sunday.
The official said the offers were not limited to airstrikes on Iraq. “Some have indicated for quite a while a willingness to do them elsewhere,” the official said, referring to Syria. “We have to sort through all of that because you can’t just go and bomb something.”
On Wednesday, Obama announced that he had authorized airstrikes for the first time in Syria.
Obama’s decision to launch attacks inside Syria was done without the consent of the Syrian government. On Thursday, National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar said that US airstrikes on Syrian territory without permission from the government in Damascus would be an act of “aggression” on the country.
“Any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government is an aggression against Syria,” Haidar told reporters in Damascus.
Syria has repeatedly warned that any action on its soil needs its approval and has said it is willing to work with any country to tackle ISIS fighters who have captured large areas of Syria and neighboring Iraq.
“There must be cooperation with Syria and coordination with Syria and there must be a Syrian approval of any action whether it is military or not,” Haidar added. Haidar refused to be drawn on what response Syria might have to any unilateral US military action on the country’s territory.
“But under international law there must be cooperation and cooperation with Syria and Syrian consent for any action, whether military or nonmilitary on Syrian territory,” he added.
Similarly, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday that “strikes by the US armed forces against ISIS positions in Syria without the consent of the legitimate government” and “in the absence of a UN Security Council decision” would be an “act of aggression, a gross violation of international law.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing when asked about Obama’s comments that “China opposes all forms of terrorism” but at the same time “upholds that in the international fight against terrorism, international law should be respected and the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of relevant nations should also be respected.”
The US officials declined to identify which countries made the offers. But they said they were under consideration.
So far, no country has publicly offered to join US airstrikes in Syria.
France has been the only country to publicly offer to join US airstrikes on ISIS targets, although limiting these to Iraq.
Britain, Washington’s main ally in the disastrous 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, has sent mixed messages. It has stressed the West should not go over the heads of regional powers nor neglect the importance of forming an inclusive government in Iraq.
As of Saturday, US fighter jets had conducted 160 airstrikes on what it claims were ISIS positions in Iraq. The United States will present a legal case before expanding them into Syria, US officials said, justifying them largely on the basis of defending Iraq from militants who have taken shelter in neighboring Syria during its three-year war.
“If and when there is a decision to actually conduct a strike, as opposed to authorize strikes which is what the president has talked about, I think we’ll be very clear about what the basis of that is going to be, but I wouldn’t want to get ahead of that,” one official said of possible US airstrikes on Syria.
“But surely the defense of Iraq and Iraq’s right to self-defense from threats and invasion across its border will play a part in that decision.”
Several Arab states have powerful air forces, including Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
Critics opposed to US involvement in the conflict with the jihadi militants have pointed out that Washington in partnership with its Gulf allies, especially Saudi Arabia, played a role in the formation and expansion of extremist groups like ISIS by arming, financing and politically empowering the armed opposition in Syria.
Last week, a study by the London-based small-arms research organization Conflict Armament Research revealed that ISIS jihadists appear to be using US military issue arms and weapons supplied to the “moderate” rebels in Syria by Saudi Arabia.