Khalil said participants in the Rmeilan meeting have approved a “democratic federal system for Rojava-Northern Syria”.
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Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer called the drawdown a “brilliant tactical move” on Putin’s part as he framed the withdrawal of about 10 percent of Russia’s military assets in Syria, mostly warplanes, as a victorious end to a limited, focused military campaign. The reports gave no casualty numbers or other details. On Thursday, they reportedly entered the Palmyra museum complex.
Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi said Russian aircraft based in Syria were conducting 20-25 sorties a day in support of the Palmyra offensive, even though Russia this week drew down its military presence in Syria.
US Central Command spokesman Colonel Patrick Ryder said some bombardments have taken place in the Palmyra region but that they were believed to have been fired by Russian artillery.
Rudskoi told reporters in Moscow on Friday that the Syrian army has seized key hilltop points near Palmyra and has cut supply routes leading to the IS-held city. “The regime can still take some more ground if the Russians choose to support them”, he said.
The Syrian conflict is simultaneously a civil war – pitting a brutal government against a multitude of political and military opposition forces – and a proxy war in which a host of outside powers are fighting for various regional and global hegemonies.
“The advance (on Palmyra) is carried out by contingents of the Syrian army”, Peskov said. But he made clear Russian Federation could easily scale up its forces once more. Activists have said that IS extremists blew up the arch.
The Islamic State also destroyed the Temple of Bel and the smaller Baalshamin Temple in August. The Islamic State group considers such relics promote idolatry.
A Russian military adviser was recently killed in battles with Islamic State fighters west of the ISIS-controlled city of Palmyra in Syria, the ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq announced Thursday afternoon. Iran has also intervened militarily in Syria to prop up Assad. Russian Su-25 ground attack jets prepare to land after return from Syria at a Russian air base in Primorsko-Akhtarsk, southern Russia, Wednesday, March 16, 2016.
During the Kremlin ceremony, Putin said the mission – which lasted almost six months and which Russian Federation claims killed some 2,000 rebel fighters – had cost the military about 33 billion rubles ($484 million) and the lives of four servicemen.
Orion said he expects that, along with the S-400, Russian air force and naval assets also will remain in Syria.
If Moscow does withdraw a significant amount of forces, Marzuk expects Hizbullah to follow suit since it faces internal Lebanese pressure, in addition to Saudi Arabia’s actions against the Shi’ite group and its cutting off of aid to Lebanon.
Notwithstanding the differences that the regional countries, Russian Federation and the United States have over Syria, this is the time for focusing their synergies on the peace process, and working out a political solution to the five-year-old dispute.
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Assad’s delegation is still “not serious” about the negotiations, al-Muslet said.
