Russia’s deputy defense minister, Anatoly Antonov, was quoted by the Tass news agency on Tuesday as saying the Russian military agreed in principle with the proposals made by the United States.
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The 90-minute video conference call took place on October 10, the Pentagon said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has insisted the missiles had reached their targets in Syria.
Moscow has recently been in talks with OPEC’s most influential member, Saudi Arabia, and the cartel’s secretary-general in July to discuss global oil market and the possibility of jointly supporting global oil prices. A military response is highly unlikely as the consequences could lead to a military confrontation between North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Russian Federation, which would have catastrophic consequences nobody wants.
Furthermore, Moscow’s new efforts aimed at luring into cooperation Syria’s Kurds, many of whom consider U.S. efforts to fight ISIL and other terrorist groups in the country inadequate, is a significant worry for Ankara.
The US has had success working, for example, with Syrian Kurds and Sunni Arab rebel groups in northern Syria. Options likely to be considered among many others: “crater the al-Assad [airbase] runway; establish free zones – that are essentially no-bomb zones – as sanctuaries for refugees and U.S.-backed opposition groups; strike Assad’s helicopter fleet that is barrel bombing its own people, just to name a few”. At least four of those missiles did not make it to Syria but crashed in Iran as they flew through that country’s airspace en route to Syria, US officials said.
“Russia’s actions in Syria are meant to contribute to preserving the territorial and political integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic, thereby contributing to the stability and security in the region, which, in turn, borders the Republic of Turkey”.
Analysts in Russian Federation have also dismissed the speculation in the western media about Moscow planning to launch ground operations in Syria.
“We are not prepared to cooperate in a strategy, which is we explained, is flawed, tragically flawed on the Russian’s part”, Carter said.
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The Russian economy, already in recession, will deteriorate further because of the military operations in Syria, experts said on Friday. “If they…have the same focus on ISIL, then that’s a conversation that we would be willing to have”, Kirby said.
