TURKEY, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have called on Russia to stop its air strikes in Syria, a joint statement unveiled by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry says.
The English-language statement posted on the ministry’s website on Thursday says, ‘We express our deep concern with regard to the Russian military build-up in Syria. These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalisation,’ it says.
Russia launched airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) positions in Syria on Wednesday at the request of President Bashar Assad. Russia’s upper house unanimously gave President Vladimir Putin approval to use the Russian Armed Forces abroad earlier that day.
On Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian Aerospace Forces were targeting the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups in Syria. Russia’s Aerospace Forces’ jets have conducted 18 sorties against 12 facilities of the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria over the past 24 hours, Russia’s Defence Ministry official spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Friday.
‘Last night, ten sorties were carried out. Pinpoint strikes were delivered on seven facilities of terrorists,’ Maj. Gen. Konashenkov said, reminding that the Russian air group in Syria includes Su-24M, Su-25 and Su-34 jets. Late on Thursday, the Defence Ministry said during the day Russia’s warplanes conducted eight sorties against five facilities of the Islamic State.
The air strikes destroyed a command post and a communications point of the IS armed units near Dar Tazza, in the province of Aleppo, in Syria’s north-west. Sukhoi Su-25 fighter jets bombed a field camp of the IS gunmen near Maarrat al-Nu’man, in the Idlib province, completely destroying the terrorists’ bunkers, ammunition depots and fuel and lubrication materials, Konashenkov said.
According to the spokesman, Russia’s newest multi-role Sukhoi-34 jets are capable of attacking terrorist targets at any place in Syria. A senior Russian official says strikes could last for three to four months. The Syrian military says that Russia carried out a total of 18 air strikes since Thursday evening. It said that several of these were in Hama and Idlib, provinces with little Islamic State presence.
The Russian Defence Ministry said it had attacked the IS stronghold of Raqqa on Thursday. Activists report that at least a dozen IS fighters had been killed there. The warning from members of the US-led coalition came as the French and Russian presidents met in Paris. The meeting was called to discuss peace efforts in Ukraine, but these are expected to be overshadowed by Syria.
Britain and the US ‘might have to live with’ Syrian President Bashar Assad in order to defeat Islamic State a senior Tory politician has said. Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee Crispin Blunt told the BBC that Western powers may have to ‘swallow’ the fact that Russia is determined to prop up Assad, emphasising the ‘bottom line’ in Syria is defeating IS. He also suggested British military intervention could wait because ‘we are pretty marginal in military terms.’
Asked by Radio 4’s Today programme about the future of Assad’s presidency, Blunt said, ‘We might have to live with it.’ He added: ‘We might have to swallow the fact that a UN Security Council permanent member, Russia, and their very important neighbour, Iran, are going to be prepared to commit the military resources and give Syria the overhead cover in the UN Security Council to enable the regime to survive.’
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Russians did not consider the Free Syrian Army, the main Western-backed rebel group, as terrorists. ‘We don’t consider the Free Syrian Army a terrorist group, and believe it should be part of the political process,’ he said during a conference in New York.
