Lavrov’s response comes after US State Department spokesperson Mark Toner, on Tuesday said that Russian Federation could be violating United Nations security resolution 2231, which was passed as a part of the Iran nuclear deal in July 2015.
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Lavrov says “there has been no supply, sale or transfer of combat jets to Iran” and insisted that the Russian Air Force’s presence in Iran is only about using its facilities.
Russian Federation also gave advance notice to the U.S. -led coalition battling Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, complying with the terms of a safety agreement meant to avoid an accidental clash in the skies, said U.S. Army Colonel Christopher Garver, a Baghdad-based spokesman for the U.S-led coalition.
“It’s against our rules to provide advice to the leadership of the U.S. State Department”, he said. What Tehran seems to be saying is: Moscow may talk to all of you about Syria, but it is working with us there. Russian Federation first announced the strikes on Tuesday from near the Iranian city of Hamedan, 280 kilometers southwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
“These military aircraft are used by air forces after Iran’s authorization for taking part in the anti-terrorist operation in Syria after a legitimate request from its government”, he said. Iranian proxies such as Lebanon’s Hizbollah and an array of Shi’ite Iraqi militias have also fought for the Syrian regime.
“Losing hope that the U.S.is willing to become a partner, the [Iranian] military establishment, to say the least, is now more keen to work with the Russians”, Barzin says, adding in connection with an increasingly bitter regional rivalry between Shi’a-dominated Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia: “Strategic cooperation with the Russians should also give Saudis the jitters, particularly now that they have openly declared a policy of confrontation with Iran”.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that Su-34 warplanes took off from the Iranian airbase and conducted an airstrike against Islamic State targets in the Syrian province of Deir al-Zour.
But Alex Vatanka, a senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, tells RFE/RL the cooperation with Russian Federation is likely to present a significant challenge for Iranian officials to explain.
Both countries back Assad. “This is a tactical move and qualitative reinforcement of Russian aerospace forces while preserving the number of planes participating in the operation”, said Kramnik.
Toner said Tuesday that Russia’s actions did “not preclude the fact that we will reach some kind of cooperative arrangement with Russian Federation”. “We need action. We have seen no effort on behalf of the United States to lift the siege or even use its influence to push the parties to protect civilians”. Russia’s broader bombing campaign in Syria, which began past year, largely turned the war in favor of the Syrian government.
The U.S. also has airlifted tons of weaponry to opposition groups in northern Syria.
Russian Federation and the United States have been discussing greater coordination for striking extremists in Syria, but they have been unable to reach agreement on which militant groups could be targeted. “Too costly at this particular moment”, he said. Russia, after a delay, has supplied Iran with its S-300 missile air defense system, evidence of a growing partnership that has helped turn the tide in Syria’s civil war and is testing USA influence in the Middle East. “This will further tarnish USA credibility with Syrian rebel groups and US allies in the Middle East”.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Russia’s continued use of the Iranian base to strike Syrian targets “doesn’t help” to reach a cessation of hostilities in the country’s civil war between government forces and militants.
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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.
