John Bolton
On September 24, US National Security Adviser John Bolton stated that Russian decision to supply Syria with an S-300 air defense system would be a “significant escalation”.
“We think introducing the S-300s to the Syrian government would be a significant escalation by the Russians … and something that we hope, if these press reports are accurate, they would reconsider,” Bolton told media claiming that Iran is responsible for the IL-20 incident.
“There shouldn’t be any misunderstanding here … The party responsible for the attacks in Syria and Lebanon and really the party responsible for the shooting down of the Russian plane is Iran”
Bolton repeated threats that the US will once again attack Syria if the Damascus government uses chemical weapons.
“If in fact they make the mistake of using chemical weapons again, the retaliation would be much stronger than before and would have the intended effect of creating structures of deterrence that they never do it again,” he said adding that the US is not going to leave Syria “as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and militias.”
