Kurdish Regional Government Foreign Affairs Minister Falah Mustafa Bakir tells U.S. News he doesn’t care how peace for his countrymen is achieved, provided Moscow and Washington don’t let ego get in the way of winning the war.
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Iraq will share intelligence about the Islamic State with Russian Federation, Iran and the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, Iraqi officials announced Sunday.
The move was seen in the region as potentially giving Moscow more sway in the Middle East.
Putin, meanwhile, sharply criticized US military support for Syrian rebels, describing it as not only illegal but counterproductive, in an interview broadcast Sunday before his meeting with Obama.
On Sunday, Rouhani said that Assad’s regime “can’t be weakened” by the worldwide community if they wish to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS) group, in an address to journalists on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The United States has frequently claimed that IS can be defeated with US-led airstrikes and ground forces from the region, including a few 5,400 moderate Syrian rebels who are being trained in a USA scheme. “He’s one of the reasons that people are flocking to fight for ISIL”.
“He can’t play a part in the future of Syria and that position hasn’t changed”, the PM continued. “Assad going is in Syria’s interests and ours too”.
The shift in Western policy about Assad’s short-term future appears to have been propelled by two main factors, the burgeoning refugee crisis roiling Europe and the Russian military buildup in Syria in support of Assad’s government.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran, like Russian Federation a big military supporter of Assad, told reporters any discussion of political reform in Syria should come only after the threat of “terrorism” had been removed.
There’s growing acknowledgment among the USA and its allies that the previous hard-line isolationist strategy toward the Syrian leader will not shorten the civil war.
The British prime minister had earlier been quoted by the media as saying that Assad can stay on as part of a transitional government.
It grew out of Al Qaeda after the misguided US-led invasion of Iraq; like Al Qaeda, it appeals to extremist Sunni Islamists.
Fox said Russian Federation also perceives “weakness” in the West’s approach to Syria. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIS.
France had feared strikes in Syria could be counter-productive and could strengthen Assad, but it was shaken by a series of deadly attacks by Islamist militants this year.
“They particularly had bases in Damascus and Latakia, and included [members from] Syria, Iran, Russia, Iraq, and Lebanese Hezbollah,” he said.
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The president is returning to Tehran to deal with the aftermath of the deadly stampede at the hajj in Saudi Arabia that left at least 136 Iranians dead, the mission said.
