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Russia confirms withdrawal of warplanes from Iranian base

Last year, Russian Federation said it had gotten permission beforehand from Iraq and Iran to use their airspace, but didn’t announce that ahead of the launch.

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Meanwhile, Turkish artillery on Monday attacked a USA -backed Syrian Kurdish militia as well as Islamic State group positions across the border in Syria, according to Turkish media reports.

On Monday, Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi, who called Moscow’s use of the bases a “temporary mission, that ended”.

“We were facing a joint undertaking regarding regional equations, especially over the developments in Syria, which also had political aspects”, the MP said, Tasnim news agency reported August 24.

Russian Federation said it had struck targets linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) and the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, previously known as the al-Nusra Front rebel group, in Aleppo, Deir Az Zor and Idlib.

The abrupt halt to the Russian presence in Iran casts doubt on prospects for deeper military cooperation between the two biggest backers of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani brought up the topic on Tuesday as lawmakers gathered in Tehran, a day after Iranian officials announced Russia’s use of the Shahid Nojeh Air Base has stopped for the time being.

The deployment to the airfield in Hamedan was the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that Iran has allowed a foreign power to use one of its military bases. Russian warplanes used the airbase last week to launch several strikes into Syria.

Tehran-Iran’s defense minister criticized Russian Federation on Monday for having “kind of show-off and ungentlemanly” attitude for publicizing that it used an Iranian air base to launch airstrikes on Syria, the first sign of government dissent over the unprecedented stationing of foreign troops in the Islamic Republic. “The plan of the exercises envisages testing the readiness of the forces of the Caspian Flotilla in resolving crisis situations presenting a threat to the military security of the country, including of a terrorist nature”, the MoD said in a release. “We are negotiating to learn how we can do this with the restriction that can be raised for the Russians”.

Russian Federation state news media had been trumpeting the deal as a sign that its partnership with Iran was deepening.

“Iran has brought the powerful Russian Federation along”. The government and the Kurdish movement have shared control of the city since the early years of the Syrian civil war.

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The short-lived nature of the arrangement could also be a sign of how Iran’s and Russia’s overlapping regional interests haven’t been perfectly aligned, Mr. Kupchan said.

Russian air strikes from Iranian territory significantly shortened flight times for Russia's warplanes