Clinton: We need to ‘push back’ on Russians in NATO airspace

In an interview with PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff on Weds afternoon, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked tough about Russian fighters flying into Turkish Airspace.

“Turkey is a NATO ally,” Clinton said. “(The Russians) are now on notice, if they invade the airspace of a NATO ally, there will be action taken.”

Russian fighters have crossed into Turkey at least three times in the last week, according to NATO officials and the Turkish government. This comes as Russians jets began bombing anti-Bashar al-Assad forces inside Syria and massing ground troops, tanks and air defense systems on the ground there.

“We need to send a clear message to Russia,” said the Democratic front-runner. “The Turks are doing it backed up by NATO, which I support, that we know what the game is. They’re supporting (Syrian President) Assad. They are going after those who oppose Assad under the guise of going after ISIS, which is the common enemy of everyone.”

Clinton said she would not be prepared to shoot down a Russian plane that violated NATO airspace, but that “we need to begin to push back on them so that they don’t engage in behavior that invades Turkish airspace; that for all we know can threaten other countries in the region. And that’s why I think it’s absolutely imperative that Secretary Kerry begin immediate talks with everybody at the table to try to, as they say, de-conflict the airspace and put the Russians on notice.”

She said the talks should center around a no-fly zone.

“My whole idea is, you put together a potential no-fly zone, something the Turks and others have been asking for some time. You go to the Russians and you say, ‘Look, we want to do this because here are the objectives we are trying to achieve and we want you on board to do this.’ And that’s what diplomacy is. You know, you push and you push as hard as you can. But if you just take something off the table, then you never know whether the leverage would or wouldn’t work.”