Reports in the Israeli press said that the visit’s aim was to avoid any possible clashes between Israeli and Russian jets that could operate over Syria.
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The USA has its own effort underway to defeat ISIS but has also said that Assad must go.
“We are looking at additional opportunities to…train and equip Syrian forces that will combat ISIL”, Carter said when asked whether the coalition was considering different options to run the program.
“President Obama will once again use this occasion to reinforce to President Putin that the importance of Russian Federation keeping the commitments that they’ve made in the context of the Minsk agreements”, Earnest said, referring to worldwide agreements calling for a cease-fire and weapon pullbacks.
“A blessed Eid al-Adha to all Syrians, who are facing death and destruction”, Assad said, and praised soldiers fighting “terrorists” – the government’s term for all insurgents battling against it in a four-year-old civil war.
Washington and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Russian Federation in response to its intervention, while the USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies have stepped up the pace of exercises and demonstrations of military strength in the member countries along Russia’s periphery.
A senior Israel military official says the country has set up a joint mechanism with the Russian military to coordinate their operations in Syria. This includes Assad, but others as well.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir described the Russian military moves as an “escalation” and reiterated at a recent meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that Syria can have no future while Assad remains in power. Those Russian troops and fighter jets might be safely based on the coast, far from the front lines, but they could become a real lightning rod for jihadist attacks.
Carter spoke during a Pentagon news conference alongside Ukraine’s Minister of Defense Colonel-General Stepan Poltorak, who previously led his country’s national guard. “Secretary Kerry will continue to have the conversations he needs to have on the diplomatic side to try to get better clarity and better understanding”.
USA satellites rapidly saw that the aircraft were there, according to the official. The same official said the Russians have begun flying drones around the coastal city of Latakia.
“But such issues on the ground complicate the matter and make it more hard to find a solution”, an official source in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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U.S.-Russian relations deteriorated significantly after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine more than a year ago.
