Speaking after the meeting at the Foreign Secretary’s official residence in London, he said: “Would we welcome Russian help in going against Isil?”
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On Wednesday, Syria’s United Nations ambassador said Russian Federation should be able to carry out airstrikes against Daesh in his country – the first known comments by a senior Syrian official on that possibility since Russian Federation began making new military moves in the ravaged country in recent days. “We can say they are all types of weapons – be it air or ground”.
He also stressed that Moscow’s military support for the regime of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad could spark an escalation of the conflict.
But administration officials have expressed concerns that the military buildup is really meant to prop up Assad, who is simultaneously battling rebel groups.
Russia has positioned seven T-90 tanks and artillery at an airfield near the Assad stronghold of Latakia, with some 200 Russian naval infantry soldiers sent to the airfield along with temporary housing units, a portable air traffic control station and components of an air defence system, Reuters reported.
The U.S. has already ploughed 4.1 billion dollars (£3.6bn) into support for Syrian refugees, he said.
“Obviously our focus remains on destroying ISIL (Islamic State) and also on a political settlement with respect to Syria“, he added.
The White House, however, said that Russia’s support for Assad was “counterproductive” and that the United States would like to see more “constructive engagement” from Moscow with the coalition against ISIS, spokesman Josh Earnest said, according to the BBC. Four million people have fled Syria and nearly twice as many are displaced inside it. Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have been arriving in Europe. Until the Islamic State took the field, he seemed to be doing well against them.
He urged the formation of a united front against the Islamic State group, saying the priority of every single Syrian citizen is to be secure.
The west is no friend of Assad but, awkwardly, it is aligned with him in fighting Islamic State.
So far, Iran and Hezbollah have been the main suppliers of military aid to Damascus in the conflict.
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The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the war using a network of sources on the ground, said government forces had recently started using new weapons including guided air-to-surface missiles.
