Italy’s La Stampa newspaper quoted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday as saying he had conveyed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov the USA concern over Russia’s military support for the government of Bashar al-Assad.
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The discovery comes at a time when U.S. is becoming increasingly suspicious of Moscow’s intentions in Syria.
“It’s clear that without an active participation of the Syrian authorities and the military, it would be impossible to expel the terrorists from that country and the region as a whole, and to protect the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Syrian people from destruction”, Putin said.
One U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the number of fixed-wing, piloted Russian aircraft stationed at the air base near Latakia, an Assad stronghold, had also grown dramatically in recent days.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said at least 38 IS fighters were killed in air strikes in jihadist-held towns in central Syria on Monday. Russia, however, has condemned the Syrian resistance in the aftermath of an alleged attack on the Russian Embassy in Damascus.
The deployments come as Russian Federation pushes for the coalition of Western and regional powers fighting ISIS in Syria to join forces with Assad against the jihadists.
He went on to assert that Russian military forces now deployed in war-torn Syria were not directed against Israel.
“Our policy is to do everything to stop weapons from being sent to Hezbollah”, Netanyahu told Putin in front of the cameras.
Russian Federation has flown in additional 24 fighter aircraft to Syria that include 12 Su-24 and 12 Su-25 fighters over the weekend.
Separately, United States of America officials said Russian Federation had started flying surveillance missions with drone aircraft in Syria in what appeared to be Moscow’s first air operations there since beginning its build-up.
Aside from these warplanes, Moscow also delivered some more other sophisticated equipment, e.g., radars, drones, and infrared binoculars, for the military to fight the Daesh, in which this equipment can be both offensive and defensive weapons.
“Putting aircraft means that everybody has to pay attention to Russian Federation”, he said. “We’re looking for ways in which to find a common ground”.
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“Moscow now has an optimistic view of chances for a settlement on Syria and uniting efforts to combat Islamic State“, the source said.
