While Britain’s parliament prepares to debate and then vote on whether to launch air strikes against the jihadists in Syria, Assad has described the US-led coalition leading the bombing as “supporting terrorists”.
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Russian Federation has stated that it has found significant proof that the Islamic State supplies oil to Turkey.
“I think it has shown the real intention of Erdogan, who, let’s say, lost his nerve just because the Russian intervention has changed the balance on the ground, Assad told a reporter for Czech Television”.
Obama even said that the ally’s of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation have a right to self-defense, and he also said that there was a definite commitment by the United States to help Turkey’s security and also its sovereignty.
“We all have a mutual enemy”, Mr Obama said, referring to the so called Islamic State (IS) group.
Tensions between Russian Federation and Turkey have complicated U.S. efforts to prod Moscow into steering its military might towards Islamic State, rather than against the moderate Syrian opposition.
He said: “I don’t expect you’re going to see a 180 turn on their strategy”.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 to prop up a pro-Moscow government but withdrew a decade later after failing to beat Afghan guerrillas.
Western leaders have frequently said that Assad must leave power if there is to be lasting peace in Syria but the 50-year-old has once again refused to quit.
To defeat Islamic State, Antonov says “the sources of its financing have to be crushed”, a view shared by the Obama Administration.
A Russian Su-24 pilot was killed after Turkey shot down the fighter last week, saying that the Russians ignored 10 warnings that they were in Turkish airspace.
Mr Putin has said Turkey shot down the jet to protect supplies of oil from ISIS, a claim that Mr Erdogan dismisses as “slander”. We are not using the same language as them…
Since the downing of a Russian warplane for violating Turkey’s airspace near the Syrian border on November 24, Russia has announced a range of sanctions against Turkey. “We know that where the Turkomans are present, there’s no Daesh presence or ISIS presence”, he said.
Putin’s executive order will go into immediate effect and follows unofficial sanctions on food products imported from Turkey, which began in response to the downing of the warplane.
In the latest episode of the spat, the Russian education ministry said it would repatriate “as soon as possible” Turkish students in Russia on exchange programs. “The tensions in the region sadden us”.
“According to available information, the highest level of the political leadership of the country, President Erdogan and his family are involved in this criminal business”, Antonov told the briefing, BBC reported.
Obama was frank about what both sides should do.
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Angry protests have taken place outside the Turkish Embassy in Moscow.
