Boroujerdi, who is the chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy, said that the move was part of Iran’s cooperation with Russia, Syria and Iraq.
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Lavrov said the talks were focused on specific mechanisms to implement agreements reached during a visit by U.S. State Secretary John Kerry to Moscow last month.
When an Anadolu Agency reporter asked Toner during the briefing what the USA position was over the kidnapped head of the Syrian Kurdish National Council (KNC), Ibrahim Biro, the spokesman said he was aware of the reports but had no details on it. Biro was kidnapped last week by the terrorist PKK’s Syrian affiliate Kurdish Democratic Union (PYD) forces and was forced to leave Syria.
Rebel shelling in Syria’s battered northern city of Aleppo killed 12 people including a child on Wednesday, state media said. Asked how much advance notice the Russians gave, Garver said: “We did know in time” to maintain safety of flight.
Senior Iranian officials said that the arrangement is legal because it only extends to permission to refuel.
According to defense consultancy IHS Jane’s, Moscow made use of the Syrian base due to expansion work at Mozdok airbase in southern Russian Federation, from where long-range bombers had been flying their Syria raids.
The move also will not go unnoticed by Iran’s Sunni-ruled neighbors, which fall in the USA sphere of influence in the Middle East and host American military personnel.
The US Department of State responded to Russia’s first air raid from an Iranian airdrome later in the day.
Syrian rebels and opposition activists reacted angrily to the news.
“No base in Iran has been given to Russian military”, Larijani said.
Ties have been on the mend since an incident in November in which Turkey shot down a Russian military jet over Syria.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said several Su-34 strike fighters left the Hamadan air field in northwestern Iran to strike targets in Syria’s Deir al-Zor Province on August 17, and that all aircraft had returned safely.
“We would suggest they consider the answer to the simple question: whether there is at least one article of the U.N. Charter, Security Council resolution or bilateral U.S”.
The move came with little notice to the United States, which has watched helplessly the escalating bloodshed near Aleppo, the country’s biggest city, and even offered an alliance with Russian Federation against Islamic State and other extremist fighters as a way to get Syria’s government out of the fight. “This development is really stunning”, Satanovsky said. “It is just too poisonous for the Obama administration. Too costly at this particular moment”, he said.
He said Iran’s Supreme National Security Council had given permission for Russian Federation to use the air base. The previous sorties that this plane has been on have been flown from an airfield in southern Russian Federation, but the problem with that is that it’s 2,000km away from the targets that its striking in Syria. The distance from Hamedan is less than half that. It’s more complex than that.
The deployment appeared to stem from political and strategic objectives, rather than military needs.
Sukhoi-30SM and Sukhoi-35S based at Hmeymim, in Syria, provided protection.
The strikes have eliminated five major terrorist weapons depots and training compounds in the area as well as three command posts and a significant number of terrorists, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The nearest air base to Hamedan is Shahid Nojeh, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the city. Russian aircraft have been reported to land there before.
The immediate motive for the latest Russian-Iranian strikes in Syria is payback for recent opposition gains in Aleppo.
Larijani added that the Iranian Constitution bans any foreign forces from having a military base in the country. However, nothing bars Iranian officials from allowing foreign countries to use an airfield.
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The core benefit for the Russian Air Force is a drastic reduction in flying time to terrorist targets in Syria.
