Russia’s support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may aggravate the conflict in Syria, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday, recounting his message to his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a telephone call. “If you are anxious about them, stop supporting terrorists“, Assad said in an interview with Russian media released on Tuesday.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin has said it is impossible to defeat the Islamic State group without co-operating with Damascus, and in recent days has sent battle tanks and other weaponry to Syria.
He said his forces weren’t communicating or cooperating tactically with the U.S.-led coalition that’s carrying out airstrikes against ISIS positions in Syria and Iraq.
“It’s not about that Europe didn’t accept them or embrace them as refugees, it’s about not dealing with the cause”, he said in an interview with Russian state broadcaster Russia Today. Assad called on all Syrian groups to unite to fight against the Islamic State.
The Syrian president dismissed Western suggestions that his government’s actions in the war had fueled the spread of such groups. “We’re fighting, if it’s possible to say, a common enemy, striking the same targets in the same places without any coordination”, Assad said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry warned that Russia’s backing for Assad risked further escalating the conflict.
Assad said there was no coordination between his government and the United States, even indirectly, apparently backing away from comments earlier this year suggesting there had been some contact.
The White House, however, said that Russia’s support for Assad was “counterproductive” and that the United States would like to see more “constructive engagement” from Moscow with the coalition against ISIS, spokesman Josh Earnest said, according to the BBC. Reports over the past two weeks indicate that Russian Federation has been sending Syria advanced weapons systems as well as deploying a small number of troops, jet pilots and operators of advanced armored personnel carriers among them.
Manuel Valls said at the start of a parliamentary debate on Tuesday about extending France’s part in the U.S.-led air campaign against Islamic State.
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Ahtisaari, awarded the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to resolve conflicts, told The Guardian he believed Western powers ignored the proposal as they thought Assad was about to fall anyway. “There can’t be a role (for) the Assad regime in efforts to stabilize the situation in Syria, much less go against ISIL”.
