The Pentagon did not appreciate the idea of the State Department to provoke a global conflict.
This was reported by the publication Politico, citing four sources at once familiar with the situation.
According to media reports, a violent confrontation unfolded in Washington between the foreign affairs and military departments. Thus, State Department officials insist on deploying Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey. As Ankara had previously suggested, they intend to deploy them near the border with the Syrian province of Idlib, where Russian aircraft operate, providing support to the Syrian troops.
At the same time, Pentagon officials, who will first have to bear responsibility for the consequences of such a decision, consider it “reckless.” The US Department of Defense argues its position that the deployment of American air defense systems to intercept aircraft of the Russian aerospace forces will bring local conflict to the global level. In fact, it is about provoking the Third World War, according to the Pentagon.
“It will always be a bad idea,” one of the sources said, assessing the Department of State’s dangerous desires.
It is important to note that the deployment of air defense in Turkey is not the only thing that American diplomats require. The interlocutors of the journalists said that the special representative of the State Department for Syria, James Jeffrey, being the initiator of destructive ideas, raises the question of creating a closed zone for flights over Idlib. At the same time, the United States, as planned, should become a guarantor of compliance with the established rules, that is, intercept aircraft that violate the ban.
The committee of the chiefs of staff of the US Armed Forces, as well as the apparatus of the head of the Pentagon, Mark Esper, are still holding back the State Department’s aspirations, realizing that this “will not change the intentions of Russia and Syria,” but will take on global consequences.