UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday warned of an unprecedented “humanitarian catastrophe” in Aleppo and urged Russian Federation and the USA to quickly reach a deal on a ceasefire in the city and elsewhere in the country.
Advertisement
Iran and Russian Federation are the two staunchest backers of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, with Teheran commanding thousands of troops fighting for him on the ground while Russian Federation provides airpower.
U.S. State Department spokesman, Mark Toner had on Tuesday said Russian Federation might be violating the resolution by using Iranian territory to launch airstrikes in Syria. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top Middle East envoy arrived in Teheran to discuss bilateral relations.
“There are no reasons whatsoever to suspect Russian Federation of violating Resolution 2231”, the minister said.
Resolution 2231 stipulates that the Security Council must sign off on any direct or indirect transfer “to Iran, or for the use in or benefit of Iran, of any battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, large calibre artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles or missile systems”.
Col. Christopher Garver, a United States military spokesman in Baghdad, said the Russians activated a communications link with coalition officials just ahead of the bomber mission.
“I think we are still trying to assess what exactly they are doing to the extent that they are doing it”, spokesman Mark Toner told reporters on Tuesday.
“It has gradations, if you will, on what you can or cannot do with regard to providing or giving Iran offensive capabilities”, he said. “Iran just let them land there and refuel their aircraft, and everything is under the control of Iranians there”.
“These jets are being used by Russian Air forces with Iranian consent within an anti-terrorist operation in Syria on the request of the legal Syrian government”.
The officials weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.
The diplomacy comes amid fierce fighting in Aleppo, and new Russian bombing operations from an Iranian air base.
Konashenkov went on to compare Russia’s use of an Iranian base to the US flying combat missions against ISIS out of Turkey’s Incirlik airbase.
“We would suggest they consider the answer to the simple question: whether there is at least one article of the U.N. Charter, Security Council resolution or bilateral U.S”.
Toner, however, defended the United States campaign.
While it allows no permanent or temporary establishment of military bases in the Iranian territory, it allows for deployment of foreign forces depending on approval of the SNSC.
The Russian Defense Ministry says its warplanes have launched a new wave of airstrikes on Islamic State fighters in Syria. Fath al-Sham, formerly known as the Nusra Front, recently changed its name and said it was severing ties with the global terror network in an apparent attempt to evade Russian and USA -led airstrikes.
Advertisement
Toner also described Russia’s move as “unfortunate but not surprising or unexpected”, saying the air strikes that Russian Federation says target the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant in Syria actually “predominately target moderate Syrian opposition forces”. “We continue to pursue that”. Furthermore, Moscow gave short notice to Washington that Russian bombers would be flying from Iran over Iraq and Syria, thereby warning American aircraft in the vicinity to stay out of their way.
