Romney campaign: No to Syria no-fly zone for now

TAMPA — Mitt Romney’s topforeign-policy advisors said Thursday that the presumptive Republican nominee is not ready to support growing international calls for establishing a no-fly zone inside Syria.

"The governor has not called for a no-fly zone. Close friends of his such as Sens. McCain, Lieberman, and Graham have called for a no-fly zone for weeks. That is not a step that Governor Romney has made," senior campaign advisor Rich Williamson told The Cable on the sidelines of a foreign-policy event here at the Republican National Convention.

The Washington representatives of the internal Syrian opposition and the Free Syrian Army publicly called on the Obama administration to support a no-fly zone inside Syria this week. French President François Hollande said Monday that France would recognize a rebel government if the Syrian opposition declared one, and French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian signaled support for a no-fly zone last week.

Williamson and other panelists at the event, hosted by the International Republican Institute, including former Sen. Jim Talent, former Sen. NormColeman, and former Rep. Vin Weberall heavily criticized President Barack Obama‘s handling of the Syria crisis over the last 18 months.

But the Romney team struggled to draw clear distinctions between its policy and what the Obama administration is already doing. For now, the Romney camp is sticking to its calls for arming the rebels directly but not using U.S. military assets inside Syria.

"If we had taken Romney’s advice on working with the opposition to help organize them and help the moderates and help arm the opposition, we wouldn’t be in the crisis we are in now," Williams told The Cable.

Romney would have not wasted time placating Russia at the U.N. Security Council and would have assembled a "coalition of the relevant" tosupport the Syrian rebels diplomatically, politically, and with weapons to fight the regime, Williamson said.

"When the U.S. has vital interests at stake, it’s now going to play Mother-May-I with the Security Council … as we’ve seen with the Security Council on Syria and the intransigence of Moscow," he said.

Coleman said that the Obama administration is "leading from behind" on Syria and that strategy hurts U.S. effectiveness across the spectrum of international issues.

"The challenge we’re facing is that some of those folks in the coalition of the relevant are questioning U.S. resolve … so the lack ofleadership has consequences that in the end make it more difficult to form the kind of coalitions we need to solve problems," he said.

"President Hollande has pointed in the direction that wehave wanted to go for a long time," Weber said. "You have to give him credit for providing leadership in a situation where the U.S. has not provided leadership."

Talent compared the situation to the international intervention in Bosnia and pointed to Bill Clinton’s reluctance to intervene until the situation had dramatically worsened.

"When you’re leading from behind — and let’s face it, that’s what the administration has been doing —  you don’t have control over events," he said.

Williamson acknowledged that the Obama administration is working with the opposition to vet rebel groups and help them organize, but said that a President Romney would have been doing so a long time ago.

"We appreciate the fact that only 13 months after Governor Romney suggested [working with the opposition], President Obama took his advice, but 17,000 people have died," Williamson said. "Allowing things to drift, holding your breath, crossing your fingers, and hoping things are getting better doesn’t solve the problem. Where has the U.S. been? The answer unfortunately is missing in action."