Toner said US officials are examining whether Russia’s use of the Iranian base is a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution that bans the supply, sale and transfer of combat aircraft to Iran without prior U.N. approval.
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“The Russian Air Force uses these fighter jets with Iran’s approval in order to take part in the counter-terrorism operation” in Syria, he added.
Russia’s decision to use Iran as a base for bombers striking Syria came as a surprise to the USA and Israel, officials in both countries have said.
“It’s against our rules to provide advice to the leadership of the U.S. State Department”, Maj. “But it’s hard to resist a recommendation for some State Dept. representatives to check their logic and knowledge of fundamental documents of worldwide law”.
He said the operations also cement Russia’s alliance with Iran in the region.
The Russian military said Thursday it was ready to back a United Nations call for weekly cease-fires in Aleppo, as haunting footage of a young boy’s rescue from a bombed-out building shook global media.
It was reported on Tuesday that Russian warplanes used an Iranian airbase for the first time for military actions in Syria. “This airfield in Iran is only 900km away”, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from Moscow, said.
During a parliament session held Aug 17, Iranian MP Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said the deployment of Russian military forces in the Nojeh airbase is against the Article 176 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution.
Larijani said. “Iran has not allocated a military base to Russia or any foreign countries.”Citing the Russian Defense Ministry, certain media outlets said Tuesday that TU-22M3 and SU-34 jets took flight from the Hamedan Airbase to strike targets in Syria.Before Hamedan Airbase, Russian forces had been using Khmeimim Airbase in Syria or in Russian territories”.
The move also will not go unnoticed by Iran’s Sunni-ruled neighbors, which fall in the USA sphere of influence in the Middle East and host American military personnel. The response from the Obama administration is that they are not.
Syrian rebels and opposition activists reacted angrily to the news.
Thursday also marked the fifth anniversary of President Barack Obama’s call for Assad to leave power.
The move flies in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement a few months ago that he was withdrawing Russia’s military assets from the embattled country.
The situation around Aleppo has grown so dire that a group of the city’s doctors wrote a letter to Mr. Obama last week begging for shipments of medical supplies.
“It’s not helpful to the situation that we now have, where we’ve got this stalemate around Aleppo, where we have. insufficient access to humanitarian assistance, where we have civilian populations at incredible risk, and we have – we’re no closer to any kind of credible cessation of hostilities like we had a few months ago, certainly not nationwide”, Toner said. Syrian civilians and the Free Syria Army know better. Mr. Obama also signed legislation in 2014 for the Pentagon to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels, an effort that failed to produce more than a handful of fighters. US officials said no agreement was close. Hamadan is much closer to positions of the Daesh extremist group than the base Russian Federation had previously been using, Khmeimim, in coastal northern Syria.
The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human rights says heavy air strikes on Tuesday hit many targets in an around Aleppo killing dozens. “This will further tarnish USA credibility with Syrian rebel groups and US allies in the Middle East”.
A video report posted on the group’s site showed rescue workers pulling bodies from wreckage along a heavily damaged street.
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Other Iranian ” The approach toward the East does necessitate some components, including having strategic relations with countries such as Russian Federation and China”, Ali Abar Velayati noted. officials, including SNSC Secretary Ali Shamkhani, have backed the decision, seeing it as an indication of a strategic alliance between Tehran and Moscow.
