Obama said Putin has stepped deeper into a conflict that can not be solved by military power alone, and that his approach is misguided in not distinguishing between Syrian rebels who want Assad ousted and those who are terrorists.
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Washington quickly criticized the air strikes, but said Moscows moves would not change the US-led air campaign targeting the Islamic State in Syria.
The IS group has no presence in the northwestern province of Idlib, which includes Jisr al-Shughour and Maaret al-Numan.
“I believe we must tell the Russians that we will conduct, we will secure a no-fly zone around anti-Assad rebel forces that we’re supporting”, Fiorina said on Fox News Wednesday night. “And that’s a recipe for disaster”.
And the president suggested, “A military solution alone”, in which “Russia and Iran to prop up Assad and pacify the population”, will just “get them stuck in a quagmire, and it won’t work“.
“They pretended… only 20 per cent of their operations produced results, 80 per cent of them did not lead to bombardments, they returned to base for different reasons,” he said. “The reason Assad is still in power is because Russian Federation and Iran have supported him”.
Media offensive – What does the campaign look like through the lens of Russian media?
Activists and residents there said IS cancelled Friday prayers and emptied mosques across the city amid fears of further strikes. Idlib has seen the brunt of the attacks, while Aleppo and Hama have also been struck.
Repeating calls for regime change in Syria, the British prime minister added: “We should be using this moment now to try to force forward a comprehensive plan to bring political transition… because that is the answer for bringing peace to the region“.
“We think that it’s self defeating,” he said.
He also said his country’s army was “capable of cleansing the country of those terrorists”. However given rapidly shifting battlefield terrain in Syria’s chaotic civil war, it can be hard to distinguish which groups holds what territory.
Hollande said he told Putin that only one of Russia’s strikes in three days hit at the Islamic State, also known as ISIL, ISIS and Daesh.
Obama touched on a number of other subjects during the press conference.
How has the world reacted?
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A joint statement accused the Kremlin’s actions of escalating the four-year Syrian conflict and fuelling more extremism and radicalisation. Previous year the United States military air-dropped weapons to PYD forces in Kobani in northern Syria fighting against ISIL militants, to Turkey’s dismay.
