CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript - Foreign Policy in Syria

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

KEILAR: And still a lot of questions there.

Jessica Yellin for us at the White House.

And joining us now with more on this breaking news, Republican Senator John McCain, he is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Senator McCain, thanks for being with us. You were, first off, let me ask you this. You were just on the Senate floor and you talked about how the administration was going to be arming the rebels. You sort of back pedaled on that. Maybe you didn't want to get ahead of them there. I'm not sure if that's what it was. But now they've come out, we understand, and they've said that they will be giving military assistance to some forces. Not a lot of specifics here, and I know that this isn't going to be enough for you.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Well, it can't be enough. The Russians are providing the most sophisticated equipment, missiles, airplanes and we have so far only seen light weapons come in, and in our case perhaps flak jackets and MREs. But I have been told that, as I mentioned on the floor, that there'd been military assistance. But they need a lot more than military assistance.

We need to establish the no-fly zone. We need a safe zone within Syria. Every time that we have escalated a bit in our assistance, the Russians, Hezbollah, the Iranians are all in. And so you've got to change the equation on the ground and you can't do it with half measures. You cannot do it with just supplying weapons. Assad is far too successful for that to be effective now.

KEILAR: And I know that you're certainly advocating in favor of a no- fly zone? We just heard from your Republican colleague, Senator Saxby Chambliss, who said he wouldn't want to go that far. Why do you think that's a good idea? And also if you can speak to the fact that obviously a lot of Americans and certainly this administration is war weary and is fearful of getting involved to such a degree in another, I guess, war in this region.

MCCAIN: Well, first of all, the president of the United States needs to go and tell the American people why we are going to take action that I am advocating. Second of all, this is now a regional conflict. This isn't just a civil bunch of demonstrators being beaten up. This is a regional conflict.

It spilled over -- Jordan is destabilized. Lebanon is about to erupt into sectarian violence. Jihadists are flowing in from all over the Middle East. This is erupting into a regional conflict where the United States' vital national security interests are at stake.

If Iran -- if Bashar al-Assad goes, it's the greatest blow to Iran in 25 years. If Bashar -- they succeeded keeping him, that will be a great victory for the Iranians and everything that they represent. No, we don't want boots on the ground, and, yes, we should be able to establish a no-fly zone relatively easily. If we can't, then we are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars of American taxpayers' money on national defense.

KEILAR: There are certainly complications in arming the rebels in this case. We've seen that in the past with other conflicts. Can you speak to that and perhaps some of what your concerns are. And also in a way how the U.S. can make sure that arms don't fall into the wrong hands, considering, you know, all of the rebels aren't necessarily I guess the good guys.

And you look at a conflict like this and it gets very complicated, it not as clear as those are the good guys and those are the bad guys.

MCCAIN: Yes. It was a lot less complicated a couple of years ago and it was a lot less complicated a year ago when every member of the national security recommended the president's recommended giving arms to the rebels and he turned that down. And now every day that goes by it's much more complicated.

There are no good options. There is a chemical weapons caches which have to be secured, which if they spread around could have catastrophic consequences. But all of the options that I'm talking about, how difficult they are, I'm talking about establishing a safe zone, it's neutralizing Bashar's air power, which is a decisive factor now in this conflict, as compared to doing nothing.

Look what the consequences of doing nothing are. They are catastrophic in a regional conflict. So I don't say it's easy, I don't say that there are any real good options. But I know what the worst option is, is what we've been doing for the last two years, which is nothing.

KEILAR: Now, Senator McCain, can you give us a sense of how you found out that the U.S. would be arming the rebels?

MCCAIN: I had heard that from a reliable source that I'm sure would not like for me to give you his name, Brianna, and I'm sure you understand that.

KEILAR: I certainly understand that. And I know --

MCCAIN: But the president -- but the president, as you know, that what was just said I think corroborates that. Now the question is, is what kind of weapons. They have enough light weapons. They've got enough AK-47s, AK-47s don't do very well against tanks. They need anti-tank weapons and they need anti-air weapons.

KEILAR: All right. Senator John McCain, thank you so much for joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source