Moscow - Russia is sending two warships to the eastern
Mediterranean, Interfax news agency said on Thursday, as Western powers prepare
for military action over last week’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria.
Interfax news agency quoted a source in the armed forces’
general staff as saying a missile cruiser and an anti-submarine ship would
arrive in the coming days because of the “well-known situation” - a clear
reference to the conflict in Syria.
The navy later denied the deployment was linked to events in
Syria and said it was part of a long-planned rotation of its ships in the
Mediterranean. It did not say what kind of vessels, or how many, were on their
way to the region.
The initial Interfax report had made clear that the aim was
to beef up the navy’s presence and not to replace the ships in the
Mediterranean. The reason for the discrepancy in the two reports was not
immediately clear.
The United States accuses Syrian government forces of
carrying out last week’s chemical weapons attack and has said it is
repositioning its naval forces in the Mediterranean.
Russia, President Bashar al-Assad’s main international ally,
says it opposes any military intervention in Syria and that it has no plans to
be drawn into any conflict. It says there is no proof that Assad’s forces
carried out the attack.
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