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Russian lawmakers give Putin OK to use troops in Syria

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, meets with officers after military exercises at Donguz range in Orenburg region, Russia, September 19, 2015.

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The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Putin had sent a request to Russia’s upper chamber of parliament to ask lawmakers to authorize using the Russian army overseas.

“This concerns Syria and is not about achieving any foreign policy goals or satisfying a few ambitions, as we are regularly accused of by our Western partners, but only the national interests of the Russian Federation”, Ivanov said.

Peskov also said that there were no plans for any special message in connection with the president’s decision to request permission to use Russian armed forces outside the country.

He had hosted a meeting of the Russian security council at his official residence outside of Moscow to discuss terrorism and extremism on Tuesday night.

“The objective of these de-confliction discussions will be to ensure that ongoing coalition air operations are not interrupted by any future Russian military activity, to ensure the safety of coalition air crews and to avoid misjudgment and miscalculation”, he added.

“It’s hard to understand how working alongside the backers of [Syrian President Bashar al-] Assad could in any way stem the flow of refugees who are fleeing from his barrel bombs”.

Putin told reporters, “We are thinking about it, and we don’t exclude anything”.

“All right, OK, fine”, Mr. Trump said.

A U.S.-led coalition has already been bombing Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

“We are talking about Syria,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, isolated after his annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, secured a meeting with Obama on Monday largely as a result of his surprise movement of planes and tanks into Syria.

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In his earlier address, Mr Obama had expressed a desire to work with Russian Federation and Iran to end the four-year conflict that has killed 250,000 people – but only if they agree to United States demands that the government of Bashar al-Assad must be removed.

Heavy fighting in Syria sent two stray rockets into Israeli territory in the Golan Heights. /EPA