US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan

From Department of StateExcerpt from press briefing by State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland.

QUESTION: Do you have any information on that plane allegedly carrying Russian arms that was stopped in Turkey?

MS. NULAND: Well, I think you’ve probably seen the public statements from Prime Minister Erdogan just this morning asserting that they found Russian-made munitions onboard the plane. Was there anything else in particular?

QUESTION: No, just anything that the U.S. might have or any reaction to what has happened.

MS. NULAND: Well, more broadly, we strongly support the Government of Turkey’s decision to inspect the plane. And while we would send you to them for more details on what they found, we would be concerned by any effort to supply military equipment to the Assad regime, because it’s clearly being used by the regime against their own people. So any transfer of any military equipment to the Syrian regime at this time is very concerning, and we look forward to hearing more from the Turkish side when they get to the bottom of what they found.

QUESTION: How about more from the Russian side? Have you asked them about this?

MS. NULAND: I’m confident that when we have a better sense of what the Turks have found, it’ll be a subject of conversation we have with them as well.  (photo: Hindustan Times)