On Tuesday, Russian fighter jets used an Iranian airbase for the first time for military actions in Syria, TASS reported.
Advertisement
“There is no stationing of Russian forces in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, he added.
The bombers previously have flown from their base in Mozdok in southern Russian Federation, and had to cover more than 2,000 kilometers to reach targets in Syria.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Russia’s use pf the Hamedan base in western Iran “could very well be a violation” of a UN Security Council resolution, which Russian Federation denied.
Moscow brushed off American suggestions that its deployment of military aircraft to Iran violates a United Nations arms embargo on Wednesday, as Russian jets flew missions out of an Iranian base for a second consecutive day.
Moscow’s deepening involvement comes as the Syrian regime and Iran-backed ground forces supported by Russian Federation airstrikes are battling to retake the city Aleppo from rebels, including jihadists.
“There’s nothing even to discuss here”.
Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov suggested that Washington needed to brush up on the specifics of the resolution.
“We have good cooperation with Russian Federation and we say it loud and clear”, he added.
Military experts say the new deployment allows the anti-IS air campaign to be more efficient in terms of saving fuel, thus carrying heavier bomb loads, as opposed to operating from relatively remote air bases in Russian Federation.
“As a result of the strikes five large arms depots were destroyed. a militant training camp. three command and control points. and a significant number of militants”, the ministry said in a statement. First it was the Americans, then the Russians and now the Iranians.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said Wednesday that Russian fighter jets land in Shahid Nojeh Air Base only to refuel and this is under the permission of the country’s Supreme National Security Council.
While they both oppose ISIS, which has used the chaos to establish a safe-haven there, the USA wants to see close Russian ally Bashar al-Assad leave power while Russia continues to back the regime with airstrikes against Syrian opposition groups.
In Syria, seven civilians were killed and nine were wounded by rocket rounds fired by armed groups on a government-controlled district of the city of Aleppo, Syria’s state-run news agency said Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Jaish al-Fateh, a coalition of several radical religious rebel groups, unleashed a wide-scale offensive against several adjacent military bases in southern Aleppo, trying to break a government siege on rebel-held areas east of Aleppo.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned of an unprecedented “humanitarian catastrophe” in Syria’s Aleppo and urged Russian Federation and the United States to quickly reach a deal on a ceasefire in the city and elsewhere in the country.
Toner told reporters Wednesday that the actual language of the resolution is very nuanced. On Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said another wave of bombers had departed from Iran, striking targets in eastern Syria.
He added that the U.S. government was continuing to assess whether the sanctions were violated and said John Kerry, the USA secretary of state, had discussed the matter with Mr Lavrov.
Advertisement
If the recent dispatch of Russian bombers from Iranian territory represents a new general arrangement, it stands to significantly reduce the time involved in getting Russian aircraft to their targets, while also avoiding logistical difficulties involved in resupplying and operating directly out of an airbase inside war-torn Syria.
