For the second day in a row, Russian warplanes launched from an airbase in Iran to attack rebel targets in Syria.
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While Russia has claimed that it is striking terrorist targets, USA officials say it is mostly targeting the opposition, including those backed by the West.
“The fact that we cooperate with Russian Federation as an ally on regional issues like Syria doesn’t mean that we have given a base to Russian Federation militarywise”, the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Mr. Larijani as saying. “The president’s failure to back his call with effective action also undoubtedly undermined his own credibility and encouraged the Assad regime to violate his August 2012 “red line” against the use of chemical weapons”.
The closer cooperation serves both to target opponents of Mr. Assad – some of them backed by the United States – while also sending a sharp message to the USA as fighting over the divided city of Aleppo reaches a critical point after five years of inconclusive civil war. The U.S., which wants Assad out, has expressed concerns about Moscow and Tehran’s stepped-up military coordination.
President Vladimir Putin visited in November and the two countries regularly discuss military planning for Syria. Iran has provided ground forces that work with local allies while Russian Federation provides air power.
The United States said it was still assessing the extent of Russian-Iranian cooperation but described the new development as “unfortunate”.
The US State Department’s deputy spokesman on Wednesday said recent Russian air strikes were unhelpful and even unsafe.
Toner told reporters Wednesday that the actual language of the resolution is very nuanced. “It speaks to a continuation of a pattern we’ve seen of Russian Federation continuing to carry out airstrikes, now with Iran’s direct assistance. that predominantly target moderate Syrian opposition forces”.
Last year, Russian Federation and Iran signed a military cooperation deal focused on training and fighting terrorism. Coupled with signs of an escalating crackdown at home, this may suggest that Iran’s material commitments are at risk of outpacing its economic recovery following the nuclear agreement with six world powers including the U.S. and Russian Federation.
“These aircraft are being used by Russia’s air force with Iran’s agreement as a part of an anti-terrorist operation at the request of Syria’s leadership”, he said at a press conference in Moscow.
Col. Christopher Garver, a USA military spokesman in Baghdad, told reporters at the Pentagon that the Russians activated a communications link with coalition officials just ahead of the first bomber mission on Tuesday.
“There are no reasons to suspect Russian Federation of violating resolution 2231”, Lavrov said during a news conference Wednesday.
The second consecutive day of bombing missions from Iran’s Hamadan airbase about 175 miles southwest of Tehran involved Sukhoi Su-34 strike aircraft, called Fullbacks by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, according to the Russian news outlet RT. The first wave reportedly hit targets in Aleppo, Deir ez-Zor and Idlib.
In Syria, where over the past two days Russian jets have flown over Iraq and into Syrian areas, conducting a series of bombing raids around Aleppo.
It said the military aircraft had taken off from bases in both Russian Federation and Iran and destroyed six command posts and a large number of fighters and military equipment.
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A top Iranian official said the new arrangement was Syria-specific but also “strategic”, and a “warning to terrorist-supporting countries” – an oblique reference to the U.S. and its allies, which want to see Mr. Assad removed from power.
