“Nothing of this sort happened on our part as FSA [Free Syrian Army]”.
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“We believe a campaign like the one they are running there right now would cost between $2.3 [million] and $4 [million] a day”, said Ben Moores, senior analyst at IHS Jane’s, told The Financial Times.
Rebel groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army have been supplied with weapons through Jordan and Turkey.
In a statement, the presidency said the Syrian state would welcome any political solution approved by the Syrian people that preserves national unity.
Although Carter said the USA still wanted Assad out in the long-run, he did not give any indication that the US was ready to pressure Russian Federation or Iran on the issue.
Russian Federation has been conducting air strikes in Syria since September 30 – bombings that Western governments have said were meant to bolster the regime of Assad, Moscow’s longtime ally, by targeting his opponents.
The army said the man had taken off from the southern section of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, adjacent to southern Syria.
Secretary of State John Kerry is convening roughly a dozen Arab and European countries later this week to discuss ending the civil war in Syria and the future of President Bashar al-Assad, senior State Department officials told CNN. “They pledged to continue and intensify support to the moderate Syrian opposition while the political track is being pursued”.
The peace process in the war-torn country must be “inclusive” and all opposition groups and “significant” foreign countries must be included, Lavrov said, adding that anything else was “unsuitable”.
Hosting a delegation of Russian parliamentarians in Damascus on Sunday, Mr Assad expressed his gratitude for Moscow’s support and said eliminating “terrorist” groups would resolve Syria’s problems.
“We don’t need the help now, they should stop attacking our bases and then we can talk about future cooperation”. “We must force them to come up with a plan for their country where the interests of every religious, ethnic and political group will be well protected”, Lavrov said.
French officials were not involved in the latest round of Syria talks between the USA, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey last week in Vienna.
Legal adviser and senior leader of the Free Syrian Army, Osama Abu Zeid, denied media reports that Russian Federation had invited the FSA for dialogue.
“Everything will depend on whether it is possible to move beyond certain ambitions, personal preferences and dislikes, to ensure the representative nature of the talks with Iran, Egypt and Syria’s Arab neighbors”, Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying at a press conference.
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Syria describes all the insurgents as terrorists, including jihadist groups such as the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and ISIS, and other factions including Islamist groups and those fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.
