The Times reported on Saturday that Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “expressed alarm” on Friday at reports that “up to 200 Russian personnel” had been observed strengthening the runway at an airbase in the Syrian city of Al-Qamishli (also known as Al-Qamishly, Kamishli or Kamishly) on the eastern border with Turkey.
Advertisement
The Russian air operation in Syria against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) began on September 30 on request of President Bashar Assad.
The recent gains strengthened the Syrian government’s hand ahead of planned talks with the opposition, expected to start this week.
Lavrov also said Russian action in Syria had drastically altered the situation there.
Lavrov warned that it would be a “grave mistake” not to invite the PYD.
Turkey sees the PYD as a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a Kurdish resistance group it has been fighting since the 1980s.
“The talk is about people who arrived in Russian Federation with a objective of either to work in Russian Federation or to visit relatives”, Lavrov told an annual news conference.
The defence ministry said Monday that Russian jets had bombed 484 “terrorist infrastructure” targets in 169 combat sorties between January 22 and January 24.
Russia, a key ally of Assad, has called for the inclusion of Kurdish representatives, and the US and others have supported the Kurds in the fight against IS. The minister noted that the decision on the Kurds participation in the inter-Syrian talks should be taken by United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura and Russian Federation will not veto it.
Advertisement
Regional and worldwide parties have finally realized the need for abandoning pre-conditions for launching the intra-Syrian talks, He added. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
