I don’t know if this is a general question, but is there any behavior on the part of Assad which would cause Russia and China to drop support and quit defending them in the UNSC?
Thanks,
Rob
Maybe if he was photographed urinating on their national flags…
They’re backing him. The question is not whether they have limits, or especially if they would state those limits publicly. The question is how strongly they want to defend him if he provokes action from others.
For example, if anything in Syrian territory is far game for the USA, Britain, France and Turkey (or NATO), to what extent will Russia defend them? They can say til they’re blue in the face that they think the chemical attack was the rebels, Assad is innocent, etc.- but if the US launches cruise missiles, are the Russians going to retaliate by sending missiles against the US warships? They’ll send Assad the missiles and he can do it himself… but that could provoke further attacks, etc. Russian supply transports on Syrian soil are open to attack once NATO has said so. If you are told “anything inside the borders could get bombed” you were warned. If you defy the warning, and are bombed, what are you going to do about it? Start WWIII?
Firing Sarin at Israel, maybe.
(Not sure they’d have time to make an official diplomatic statement, tho’)