Since then, as President Putin has now confirmed, not just the Americans but 40 countries have been supporting Daesh as it has grown from strength to strength since.
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Until now, Russia’s operation in Syria has mostly targeted more moderate rebel groups in Syria to shore up the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who Putin has backed from the start of the four-and-a-half-year long war, until the revelation about the Russian airliner. Putin, too, has issued conciliatory signals, softening his tone about the US and calling for the USA and Russian Federation to “stand together” against the extremist threat. The missiles easily could have been meant for U.S.-supported militias on the ground, since Putin’s hit them as well. “France will remain a country of freedom, of movement, of culture, an active, brave, dynamic country that doesn’t surrender to fear”. The Russian President, thus, became the first major leader to state the “secret” as it were, saying, “I provided examples based on our data on the financing of different Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) units by private individuals”.
Obama was speaking after a meeting with Philippine President Benigno Aquino in Manila.
Russia redoubled its air strikes in Syria after the IS group claimed to have brought down a Russian jet over Egypt last month, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would be ready to work with the Western coalition if they “respect Syria’s sovereignty”. They cited furious exchanges between Iran and Saudi Arabia, which back opposing sides in the Syrian conflict, and said cooperation between those two rivals appeared all but impossible. US trade with Russian Federation makes up a trivial percentage of the country’s GDP.
While willing to tolerate Assad for a time during a transition period, Western and Gulf Arab powers say he must step aside.
Russia’s high-intensity air campaign and Putin’s influence over Assad gives the Russian Federation a key role in diplomatic efforts to negotiate a political solution.
While Obama said Russian Federation has been a “constructive partner” during talks in Vienna, he later dented Russia’s optimism that a deal is near with the US and France to coordinate the fight against Islamic State.
The fact remains, though, that the US and its allies don’t want to see Mr. Assad benefit from any effort to dislodge ISIS from territory it controls in Syria unlike in Iraq.
But Putin isn’t the only one undergoing the process of re-definition. The question, he said, is how to let go of Assad while safeguarding state institutions and the capital, Damascus.
In an interview with Rai TV broadcast on Wednesday night, the Syrian president stressed that no deadline for the start of a political transition could be set while parts of the country were not controlled by his government. Along the way, Mr. Assad’s brutal military response has made him persona non grata in most of the world.
Now, in light of the Paris attacks, the Russian President has miraculously been transmogrified into a man of stature – an important ally in the battle against Islamic State (ISIS) militants.
The first two massive strikes of Russia’s aircraft at terrorists were delivered on November 17 and 18.
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“We must be implacable against all forms of violence”.
