Russian forces took off from the Iranian base to carry out a fresh round of strikes on Wednesday morning.
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In a move that could reverberate across the Middle East, Iran confirmed Wednesday that Russian Federation is using its territory to launch airstrikes in Syria even as a second wave of Moscow’s bombers flew out of the Islamic Republic to hit targets in the war-ravaged country.
“On August 18, 2016 long-range bombers Tupolev-22M3 and frontline bombers Sukhoi-34 took off from bases in Russian Federation and Iran to deal a massive strike against the facilities of the Islamic State group (outlawed in Russia) in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor province”, the Defense Ministry said in a news release.
“These warplanes with the consent of Iran are being used by the Russian air force to participate in an anti-terrorism operation in Syria at the request of the legal Syrian authorities”, Lavrov said.
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said that the Russian warplanes were using the Shahid Nojeh Air Base to land and refuel.
In the same context, a reliable Russian military source said that setting up a Russian military base in Iran will permit targeting the sites quickly, adding that Russian airstrikes foiled an attack by fighters near Aleppo. “We are discussing this through military, intelligence and foreign ministries”, Xinhua news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.
Russian Federation and Iran have backed Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government in its five-year conflict against opposition groups that range from Islamist extremist groups such as the Nusra Front, an al-Qaida spinoff, to forces purporting to support a secular, inclusive country.
Flying missions out of Iran wouldn’t appear to provide an advantage, though Russian officials said it enables heavier loads and lower costs.
“The presence of the Russian aerospace force in Iran is a factor for regional stability”.
Russia is trying to coordinate with the U.S. in Syria and has denied any violation of United Nations resolutions in its use of an Iran air base, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. “This can be seen as a political statement that demonstrates the strength and the depth of the Russian-Iranian bond.[and] by extension, the Russian-Syrian-Iranian league”.
The destroyed facilities had been used to support militants in the Aleppo area, it said, where battle has intensified in recent weeks for control of the divided city, which had some 2 million people before the war.
The city has been divided into a rebel-held eastern part and a government-controlled western part since 2012, and is now the focal point of the civil war.
Syria has been gripped by civil war since March 2011 with various terrorist groups, including Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIL), now controlling parts of it.
It is thought to be the first time Russian Federation has struck targets inside Syria from Iran since it launched a bombing campaign to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in September previous year.
Mr. Harmer, a former US naval aviator and strike planner, said the basing of Russian aircraft in Iran offers some small military advantages, including good security and better maintenance infrastructure. His comments were geared at easing domestic concerns over the strikes.
“Not since the revolution in 1979 has Iran allowed a foreign power to conduct military operations from its territory”.
Underscoring the U.S. confusion, State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that Washington was “still trying to assess what exactly they’re doing”.
“We’d like to have an answer to a simple question – is there any provision in the UN Charter, or a UN Security Council resolution, or a bilateral US-Syria agreement allowing to bomb Syrian territory … from Turkish airbase Incirlik or any other foreign air bases”, Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the ministry, said in turn.
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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.
