US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter on Friday accused Russian Federation of running “fundamentally flawed” operations in Syria which would “inflame the civil war and therefore extremism”.
Advertisement
Just a couple of weeks ago, a photo was taken of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, laughing and smiling together at the opening of a new mosque in Moscow.
“The West will certainly not give up its sanctions against Russian Federation because of this adventurism”, Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Anadolu Agency.
The Pentagon wants an agreement on safety precautions in order to make sure there are no conflicts, misunderstandings or other problems as the U.S.-led coalition and the Russians fly over Syria. Those groups have made significant progress against strongholds of the Alawites, Assad’s sect, but are now under Russian bombardment, officials said. Russian Federation is building Turkey´s first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu on the shores of the Mediterranean, a controversial $20 billion project aimed at improving energy self-sufficiency. Such strikes, from roughly 1,000 miles away, require flying missiles over Iranian and Iraqi airspace, which experts say is meant to prove a point to the West.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who agrees with the Turkish stance on the issue, has raised the possibility of a no-fly zone on humanitarian grounds several times, only to face rebuke from President Barack Obama, who is staunchly against any more USA entanglement in conflicts in the Middle East. We will assess the latest developments and their implications for the security of the Alliance. The United States has long insisted that Assad is the problem and has to go, though possibly as part of a negotiated transition.
The Pentagon has said that it expected to hold new talks with Russia’s military on pilot safety in Syria’s war as soon as this weekend, as the former Cold War foes seek to avoid an accidental clash as they carry out rival bombing campaigns.
The White House is to provide classified briefings to lawmakers and their senior aides on Capitol Hill to explain the impending changes to the train-and-equip program.
Advertisement
“From the very beginning, this has been couched in language that is nearly identical to the language that the United States used in justifying domestically its intervention in Iraq”, said Greene. “And that is why I said the United States is not cooperating with Russian Federation in that regard”. “So we have devised a number of different approaches”. Earlier in the day, the U.S. alleged that Russian Federation is targeting moderate opposition groups in Syria.
