But yesterday (Tuesday), the head of Iran’s elite revolutionary guards suggested the nations disagreed over their end game.
Advertisement
He said Mr Assad had been elected president by a large majority and the Syrian people had confirmed there was no alternative to him as leader.
Zakharova brought the focus back to terrorism, saying that diplomats involved in the Syria talks – who are expected to meet again within two weeks – need to agree on a list of terrorist organizations. “What we did say is a regime change in Syria could become a local or even regional catastrophe”. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, acknowledged that Russian Federation “may not care if Assad stays in power, as we do”.
So now Russian Federation sends in its air force, cruise missiles, and a few number of ground troops to bomb ISIS and the nitwit rebels we tried to support.
Moscow has been bombing targets in Syria since September 30, when it launched an offensive in support of forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad against Islamic State jihadists and other “terrorist” groups.
After 250,000 civilian deaths and millions of displaced refugees, there is a tiny shred of hope.
But the U.S. state department said that it was premature for the Russian government to invite the Syrian opposition to talks in Russia.
Press TV has interviewed Hazem Salem, a political activist and commentator in Cairo, about Russia saying representatives from the Syrian government and opposition groups could partake in upcoming peace negotiations in the Russian capital.
Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel group has defended its decision to use prisoners as human shields against regime and Russian air strikes.
“We don’t ask that Iran won’t attend but we ask for example that Iran should admit (accept the) Geneva Communique, that there will be no future for al-Assad”, said Nagham al-Ghadri, vice-president of the main Western-backed Syrian political opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition.
“Russia’s military intervention has dangerously exacerbated an already complex environment”, said Anne Patterson, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, adding that Russian airstrikes predominately have targeted areas where Islamic State militants are not present.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that decisions must be made about who to consider terrorists and who should be deemed legitimate opposition groups in Syria before the next round of worldwide talks on the country’s civil war.
Advertisement
“What has most likely happened is that as soon as the Russians had enough forces in theater to start military operations, they did”, Christopher Harmer, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told Reuters.
