The Russian jets are stationed out of an Iranian air base.
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On Wednesday morning, Russian Federation sent Sukhoi Su-34 jets from the Hamedan base in western Iran to carry out a group aerial strike against IS targets in Deir Ezzor province, the defence ministry said, calling the operation a success.
The escalated air raids come as part of the Syrian military counter offensive against a series of military bases controlled by rebels in the southern rim of Aleppo.
“Over 150 militants have been eliminated, among them foreign mercenaries”, in the strikes, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Russian Federation has previously flown raids only out of its bases in Syria and Russian Federation.
Resolution 2231 stipulates that the Security Council must sign off on any direct or indirect transfer “to Iran, or for the use in or benefit of Iran, of any battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems”.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the USA was looking into whether the move violated UN Security Council resolution 2231, which prohibits the supply, sale and transfer of combat aircraft to Iran.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will gather on August 26, with the talks possibly lasting for two days. “In the case we’re discussing there has been no supply, sale or transfer of warplanes to Iran”, Lavrov told a news conference.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that Russian Federation has never used the territory of another country in the Middle East for its operations inside Syria, where it has been carrying out an aerial campaign supporting President Bashar Assad’s government for almost a year.
The fact that we have cooperation with Russia as our ally over regional issues, specifically on Syria, does not mean that we have given the Russians a military base. While the USA has mostly sat on the sidelines militarily since then, more than 450,000 Syrians have died in the civil war, and Mr. Assad increasingly has relied on Russian Federation to help him in the fight.
Syria’s civil war has killed as many as a half-million people since 2011.
“In Aleppo we risk seeing a humanitarian catastrophe unprecedented in the over five years of bloodshed and suffering in the Syrian conflict”, Ban told the UN Security Council in his latest monthly report on aid access, seen by Reuters. But the raids appeared to signal a budding alliance that would expand Russia’s military footprint in the region.
“The Middle East is a hornet’s nest and it’s not clear that Russian Federation is going to be able to steer clear of some of the internal rivalries inside of the Middle East”, he said.
Toner said the United States was still open to coordinating with Russian Federation in the fight against Islamic State, but “we have certain issues that we want resolved” before entering into such a deal. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top Middle East envoy arrived in Teheran to discuss bilateral relations.
At the same time the chairman of Iran’s parliament Ali Larijani stressed that Russian Federation does not have a permanent military base within the Islamic Republic.
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Shi’ite-led Iran has sent thousands of troops and fighters, including members of its Revolutionary Guard Corps, to Syria to bolster Mr Assad – who is from the Shi’ite minority Alawite sect – against largely Sunni rebels. Iran is also a major supporter of Assad. “Iran just let them land there and refuel their aircraft, and everything is under the control of Iranians there”.
