Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday defended a scheduled arms sales to Syria after the United Nations released a report citing escalating violence by President Bashar Assad's regime and calling for a halt to all arms transfers to the war-torn country, NBC News reported. Putin said any attempt to intervene militarily in Syria would be "doomed to fail" and echoed the UN's call the restrict arms sales, but only to the opposition forces trying to overthrow Assad. Putin went on to say that the scheduled sale of highly advanced Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Assad's military would fall under “transparent and internationally recognized contracts” but confirmed the shipment had not yet been delivered. The U.N. report called on nations to "counter the escalation of the conflict" by not providing weaponry “given the clear risk that the arms will be used to commit serious violations of international human rights or humanitarian law.”
