Putin said Russia’s military involvement in the country would only involve its air force and would be temporary.
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“If we want to deal with Israel, we must first deal with its proxies inside Syria“.
The ministry said Russian jets had destroyed an Islamic State command post and an operations centres in a mountainous area, Russian agencies reported.
A senior US official says Russia’s airstrikes in Syria did not appear to be targeting the Islamic State group, but other opposition groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Earlier on Wednesday – a day after Putin spoke at the United Nations to express a stance on the situation in Syria opposite to that of his USA counterpart Barack Obama – the Russian Federation Council authorized air strikes in Syria.
SERGEI LAVROV, Foreign Minister, Russia: Everything – everything was said by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The diplomatic source said it was in line with Russia’s stance that until there was a viable alternative to Assad, Moscow would not drop its support for him in the war that began in 2011 after a government crackdown on anti-Assad protests.
The next step for the U.S.in the conflict, Carter said, would be to hold military-level meetings with the Russians.
The US and Russian Federation both agree on the need to fight Islamic State, but are in dispute about what to do about Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government.
“I think it’s hard to prejudge at this point exactly what those conversations will look like”, he said. But U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter suggested the strikes took place in areas where ISIL “is not present”, calling Russia’s actions “ill-advised” and saying Moscow’s approach was “doomed to failure”.
“The Russians struck northern Homs today and killed 36 innocent people… who fought against extremism”, said Khaled Khoja, head of the National Coalition, in an interview.
“If confirmed, the airstrike would signal Russian intent to assist in the Syrian regime’s war effort at large, rather than securing the regime’s coastal heartland of Latakia and Tartous”, she said. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are backing the Sunni-dominated opposition, along with the U.S., United Kingdom and France.
If the Russians wanted to send a clear signal that their air campaign would be directed at ISIS, they would have chosen very different targets inside Syria.
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Fabius also called for an end to “indiscriminate bombings” by Syrian forces, indicating he had demanded before the UN Security Council that barrel bombs and chlorine attacks be banned in Syria.
