Celeste Wallander, National Security Council’s senior director for Russia and Eurasia, said the “political process that’s underway” in Syria would primarily be discussed between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
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Shoigu, during his follow-on address, held firm to the anti-Islamic State narrative, claiming that the Russian air group have flown about 4,000 sorties in 10 weeks of operations, resulting in the destruction of over 8,000 pieces of military infrastructure belonging to terrorists in Syria.
Russian support for the FSA will represent a massive shift in policy for the Kremlin, which has been accused by the West of targeting rebels to support Assad instead of savage ISIS – also known as Daesh.
Mr Putin did not elaborate on specific threats but Turkey and Russia are now locked in a dispute over the downing of a Russian jet by Ankara.
Putin told an annual meeting at the Russian defence ministry that on Friday Russian planes were assisting “in uniting the efforts of government troops and the Free Syrian Army”.
The United States and its allies have insisted that Assad can not part of any peaceful resolution to the almost five-year-old civil war in Syria, where his forces are fighting both Islamic State (IS) militants and moderate opposition groups – some backed by the U.S.-led coalition – seeking to oust him.
Turkey said the bomber had entered its airspace, something denied by Russian Federation.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who spoke following Putin’s address, said that the Islamic State controls about 70 percent of Syrian territory, and that some 60,000 militants fight under their black banner in Syria and Iraq.
Cavusoglu told NTV television: “If we are not responding to all that they have done until now, it is not because we are afraid or because any psychology of guilt”. “The airbase has been reinforced with new air defense means”.
Russian jets commenced precision airstrikes against the ISIL terrorist group, which is outlawed in Russia and many other nations, in Syria on September 30 at President Bashar Assad’s request. Vladimir Putin also said:”We will certainly carefully analyze what has happened and today’s tragic event will have serious consequences to Russian-Turkish relations”.
He added that the navy received two new nuclear-powered submarines equipped with intercontinental ballistic missiles, two general-purpose submarines and eight surface warships so far this year.
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The military also expanded its presence in the Arctic, building several new bases and other military facilities there.
