Marco Rubio Would Risk War With Russia In Order To Enforce Safe Zone In Syria

WASHINGTON — Sen. Marco Rubio (R‑Fla.) would be will­ing to risk going to war with Russia in order to enforce a no-fly zone in Syria.

In a Monday inter­view with CNBC’s John Harwood, the pres­i­den­tial can­di­date argued that doing noth­ing would only embold­en ter­ror groups like the Islamic State and increase the num­ber of refugees com­ing out of Syria.

“I am con­fi­dent the Air Force can enforce that,” Rubio said of a hypo­thet­i­cal safe zone in Syria. “I believe the Russians would not test that. I don’t think it’s in the Russians’ inter­est to engage in an armed con­flict with the United States.”

Asked what he would do if Russian forces decid­ed to enter the safe zone any­way, Rubio respond­ed, “Well, then you’re going to have a prob­lem. But that would be no dif­fer­ent than any oth­er adversary.”

Imposing a uni­lat­er­al no-fly zone at a time when Russian air­craft are already present in the sky over Syria would sub­stan­tial­ly increase the risk of armed con­flict, mil­i­tary experts told the Christian Science Monitor last week.

But Rubio, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he was will­ing to accept the con­se­quences of armed con­flict with Russia and President Vladimir Putin because the alter­na­tive, in his view, “is worse.”

“The alter­na­tive is [Syrian President Bashar] Assad will remain in pow­er but nev­er con­trol the whole of Syria again,” he said. “The alter­na­tive is the con­tin­ued growth of non-ISIS ter­ror­ist groups in addi­tion to ISIS itself.

“That being said, we can­not say, well, if Putin is going to test us, we can’t do any­thing. You basi­cal­ly at that point ced­ed to him as becom­ing the most influ­en­tial geopo­lit­i­cal bro­ker in the region,” he added.

Rubio isn’t the only GOP pres­i­den­tial con­tender to voice sup­port for estab­lish­ing a no-fly zone in Syria. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, for­mer Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R‑S.C.) have done so as well.

Democratic pres­i­den­tial con­tenders are split on the mat­ter. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that she sup­port­ed cre­at­ing “a no-fly zone and human­i­tar­i­an cor­ri­dors to try to stop the car­nage on the ground and from the air.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I‑Vt.), her chief rival for the nom­i­na­tion, said he oppos­es the impo­si­tion of a no-fly zone because it could get America “deeply involved in that hor­ri­ble civ­il war and lead to a nev­er-end­ing U.S. entan­gle­ment in that region.“Story orig­i­nat­ed here: http://​www​.huff​in​g​ton​post​.com/​e​n​t​r​y​/​m​a​r​c​o​-​r​u​b​i​o​-​r​u​s​s​i​a​-​n​o​-​f​l​y​-​z​o​n​e​_​5​6​1​2​e​3​8​a​e​4​b​0​3​6​8​a​1​a​6​0​a​d06