Russian Federation backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while the United States believes the Syrian leader must step down and is supporting rebel groups that are fighting to unseat him.
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Russian officials, however, admitted that the goal is to reduce expenses and avoid military risks during an air operation that seeks supporting the Syrian regime forces, Iranians and the so-called Hezbollah.
The head of Iran’s National Security Council was quoted by state news agency IRNA as saying Tehran and Moscow were now sharing facilities.
Both countries back Assad.
He added that the U.S. government was continuing to assess whether the sanctions were violated and said John Kerry, the USA secretary of state, had discussed the matter with Mr Lavrov. “The advantage in reducing flight-time, costs, and what the Russians say is the effectiveness of the strikes, makes this a pretty clear tactical decision to make”.
Last month, Kerry met Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lavrov in Moscow, hoping to finalize the new strategy. The first wave of air strikes took place on Tuesday.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on Tuesday Russian airstrikes “didn’t help” end fighting in Syria and the use of an Iranian base may violate a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting the supply, sale and transfer of combat aircraft to Iran. It’s more complex than that. Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday Russian warplanes have taken off from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters in Syria.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov denied that the Russian move breached the resolution.
In his remarks, reported by the state-run IRNA news agency, Larijani did not directly discuss the strikes, though he said Iran has “cooperated with Russian Federation, as it is our ally on regional issues, especially on Syrian issues”.
“As I understand it, it’s not just supplying the Iranians certain weapons or certain offensive weaponry”.
MiG-29 fighter in Dezful, Iran. And Mr. Obama has deployed small numbers of USA special forces to Syria to fight the Islamic State, in addition to the thousands of airstrikes that the US -led coalition has launched against the extremist group operating in Syria and Iraq.
Because Iran supports the regime of Assad in Syria with proxy fighters and because Russian airstrikes there are in support of Assad’s government, it is possible that the aircraft could be seen as being used for the “benefit of Iran”.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that its Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and Su-34 tactical bombers were launching sorties over Syria from the Hamadan air base.
“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”, Lavrov insisted at a Moscow press conference, as quoted by Reuters.
Russian Federation has also sent Tu-22M3 bombers to target ISIS and the Nusra Front militants in Aleppo, as well as in Deir ez-Zor and Idlib.
Chris Harmer, senior naval analyst for the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, said the basing of Russian planes in Iran represents a doubling down of support for the Syrian president by Tehran and Moscow.
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The attack hit two ISIL command points and large training camps, “eliminating more than 150 militants”, the ministry said in comments carried by TASS.
