While it said it was targeting Islamic State militants, most of its airstrikes were against other groups fighting the Syrian government.
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Russian Federation and Iran have also been participating in talks with the United States, Arab and European countries seeking to end the four-year Syrian civil war, which has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced about half the nation’s pre-war population of 22 million people, sending millions to neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan and hundreds of thousands to Europe.
Turkey said the Russian plane had violated its air space 10 times within a five minute period, but Russia insisted it had never strayed from Syrian territory.
He said that the U.S. insistence on the ouster of Bashar al-Assad – “who is the legal and elected president of Syria” – was among the weaknesses of Washington’s announced policies. The objective of the Russian president’s visit was to discuss the Syrian crisis with the Iranian leader and to attend the Gas Exporting Countries Forum summit.
Putin’s three-day visit to Tehran was scheduled around a summit on gas exports. Mr. Assad’s fate will likely dominate the agenda.
He also reiterated the opposition stance that there could be no peaceful solution in Syria without the removal of Assad. He described the cooperation and consultation between Moscow and Tehran about the process of political settlement of the Syrian issue as absolutely necessary.
Russia’s missile systems will be sent to the Hemeimeem air base in Syria’s coastal province of Latakia, located about 50 kilometres south of the border with Turkey.
The proposal, which seems to draw heavily on a recently circulated Russian initiative, states that “free and fair elections” would be held according to a new constitution within 18 months. The vote would determine a new parliament, though not necessarily a new president.
But Moscow’s aim of an global coalition made up of Iran, Jordan and other regional and Western countries against ISIS is coming up against deadlock over Assad’s future, which recent peace talks in Vienna failed to break.
Iran and Russian Federation have become increasingly allied in Syria providing support that has propped up Assad’s government and forces since an uprising erupted in 2011. He also agreed with Khamenei’s sentiment that the countries opposed to Assad are now pursuing their goals via negotiations, saying, “We are careful of this issue”.
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Iran’s gas production more than doubled over a decade to 160.5 billion cubic metres in 2012, before the latest sanctions took full effect, and Rouhani said capacity would surge to more than 1 trillion cubic metres in another two years.
