It is premature to say that we are ready to do it [too].
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Russian Federation has repeatedly used its UN Security Council veto to support Bashar al-Assad throughout the four and a half year-long war, which is believed to have claimed some 250,000 lives.
A Russian expeditionary force including fixed and rotary-wing attack aircraft, support equipment, and personnel are now arriving in-country and establishing a forward-operating base near Damascus at a Syrian-controlled facility. Videos also began circulating in which troops shouted orders to one another in Russian.
The U.S. now finds itself in the ticklish position of opposing both Assad and IS, even though IS are cutting swathes through Assad’s loyalist forces.
“It is a canard”.
“Evidence has been inconclusive so far as to what this activity is”.
In any case, New York University professor Mark Galeotti, an expert in global affairs and Russian and Slavic studies, doesn’t think Russia is prepared to devote the kind of extensive resources needed to keep Assad in power since thousands of Russians soldiers are fighting in Ukraine.
“There has been no redeployment of Russian combat aircraft to the Syrian Arab Republic”, a source told Russia Today.
“Most of the operations room and numerous defence lines are planned by Russian experts, so there are extra technical personnel now”. If Russian Federation chooses to strike rebel groups, they will be eliminating Syrian fighters who have received Pentagon and C.I.A training from the US.
Assad was re-elected previous year, winning nearly 90 per cent of that vote, which worldwide observers labelled a farce.
The head of state said Azerbaijan attaches great importance to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visiting Azerbaijan – on the day of his country’s national holiday Russia Day – to attend the opening ceremony of the first European Games, describing this as a manifestation of the high level of bilateral relations between the two countries. Russian troops are fighting with Assad’s forces and images of what appeared to be Russian planes and drones in the skies over Syria have been published, the U.K.’s The Telegraph newspaper reported on September 2.
Assad’s opponents have rejected the idea.
The White House said, however, that it will welcome Russia’s involvement in the global coalition established to counter Islamic State and in diplomatic efforts to end the brutal civil war.
Another option debated in foreign policy circles would involve Mr Assad stepping down to be replaced by a mutually acceptable successor.
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Assad’s foes have refused to cooperate with Damascus, fearing that would help legitimise his rule in Syria, where the West and Gulf states say he is part of the problem, not the solution, and must go. “We continue political efforts on uniting and creating a coalition”, he said. “Obviously Russian Federation would not want the regime to fall, but what can they really do?”
