Putin claimed Friday that along with supporting the Syrian army, Russian Federation has also provided air cover for some units of the opposition Free Syrian Army in the provinces of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and Raqqa.
Advertisement
Celeste Wallander, senior director for Russia and Central Asia on U.S. President Barack Obama’s National Security Council, said “it’s clear” an agreement is possible between the U.S.-led coalition and Moscow on the political exit of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s staunch ally, as part of a transition in Syria.
If confirmed, Russian support for the Free Syrian Army will represent a major policy shift for Moscow, which has been accused of targeting Western-backed foes of Assad instead of its declared goal, the Islamic State group.
“The overwhelming majority of Russian military actions and support is to the Assad regime, to the Assad military forces”, she said.
Such targets must be “immediately destroyed”, he told defence officials in televised comments.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, who spoke following Putin’s address, said that the Islamic State controls about 70 percent of Syrian territory, and that some 60,000 militants fight under their black banner in Syria and Iraq.
At the same time, he said that the military should cooperate with the U.S.-led coalition and Israel to ensure flight safety.
Putin told an annual meeting at the Russian defence ministry that on Friday Russian planes were assisting “in uniting the efforts of government troops and the Free Syrian Army”.
The State Department said Kerry will also discuss the Ukraine conflict and “stress the need for full implementation” of the Minsk accords to halt violence between Kyiv’s forces and Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that the United Nations says has killed more than 9,000 people since April 2014.
Shoigu said Russian warplanes have flown 4,000 combat sorties in Syria since the launch of the air campaign there, destroying 8,000 “terrorist” targets.
His orders come a month after Turkish forces downed a Russian Su-24 bomber over the Syrian border, triggering a bitter feud between the two military forces.
Russian production of T-shirts with anti-Turkish slogans has been delayed by disruptions in fabric imports from Turkey, Russian media reports said Wednesday.
“Our action there hasn’t been prompted by some abstract geopolitical interests or a desire to train and test new weapons systems, which is important too”, Putin said.
In a sign of the complexity of the US-Russian relationship, the US State Department said Kerry would meet President Vladimir Putin but the Kremlin would not confirm this, AFP reported on Saturday.
“Russia supplies weapons to the legitimate authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic”, he said.
Advertisement
The military also expanded its presence in the Arctic, building several new bases and other military facilities there.
