The two US officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the intent of Russia’s military moves in Syria remained unclear.
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But Russian Federation has declined to comment on the exact scale and scope of its military presence in Syria. One of the officials said initial indications suggested the focus was on preparing an airfield near the port city of Latakia, an Assad stronghold.
“We denied permission to let Russian military-transport planes cross Bulgarian territory because on the basis of the available information we have reasonable doubts the cargoes are not the declared ones”. The White House said it was closely monitoring the situation.
“In a phone conversation with Lavrov on Saturday, Kerry made clear that if such reports were accurate”, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation” with the US-led global coalition battling Islamic State group in Syria, the State Department said back then. Russian Federation has backed Assad, while the United States advocates a political transition to end his rule.
Jaber said the Syrian coast is a “red line for the regime and the Russians”, and it’s threatened now after the fall of the northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour earlier this year into the hands of al-Qaida fighters and their allies.
Momentum has turned against Assad in recent months in the four year, multi-sided civil war which has killed around 250,000 people and driven around half of Syria’s 23 million people from their homes. Moscow said on Wednesday that Russian military experts were present in Syria to assist with Russian arms deliveries to Syria, which Moscow says are aimed at combating terrorism.
The controversy over the Russian flights comes amid signs of increased Russian military presence in Syria. A United States military official said “under 50” Russian troops had arrived. “All aspects of the relationship are now being developed, including the military one”, he said. He provided no details, and other Lebanese politicians contested the claim, saying the Russians haven’t joined the fray yet.
Another of the Lebanese sources said that so far any Russian combat role was still small: “They have started in small numbers, but the bigger force did not yet take part…”
“Every time Syria gets new weapons, Russian experts come to train them (Syrians) on these weapons”, Jaber said.
Following the call, a spokeswoman for Lavrov said that “the Kremlin had long provided military assistance to the Syrian government in its fight against extremists and expressed surprise at Kerry’s warning”. Russian Federation has set out the case for supporting Assad in the most forthright terms yet in the past few days, likening the Western approach to Syria to failures in Iraq and Libya.
Bulgaria banned Russian planes from its airspace on suspicion they weren’t carrying humanitarian aid to Syria, closing the main flight path. Three years ago, Turkey forced the landing of a passenger jet flying from Moscow to Damascus to search for weapons.
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Part of the diplomatic quarrel has centered around use of air space for flights, which Moscow says bring humanitarian aid but USA officials say may be bringing military supplies.
