US Secretary of State John Kerry has told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Moscow’s “continued support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad risks exacerbating and extending the conflict” in the country.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Russia next week for talks with President Vladimir Putin on the expanding Russian military presence in Syria, an Israeli official said on Wednesday. “Stop – if you are anxious about them – stop supporting terrorists”.
“Europe is responsible because it supports terrorism, as I said a short while ago, and is still supporting terrorism and providing cover for them”, the Syrian leader said, adding that “it still calls them “moderate” and categorises them into groups, even though all these groups in Syria are extremists”. He singled out the Islamic State group, which has captured about a third of Syrian territory along with large swaths of land in neighboring Iraq, as well as al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, the Nusra Front, and “some others”, without specifying.
Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari told British newspaper The Guardian, in remarks confirmed by his office to AFP, that Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, met with him privately in 2012 and made the comments. Elections held in the past under al-Assad, which he won by huge margins, have been criticized by opposition groups and Western governments. Russian Federation in recent days has sent about a half-dozen battle tanks and other weaponry to Syria, with the apparent goal of setting up an air base near the coastal town of Latakia.
The Obama administration initially hoped it had hampered the Russian effort to move military equipment and personnel into Syria when Bulgaria, a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member, announced it would close its airspace to the flights.
He also reiterated that it is up to the Syrian people to choose their leadership and not “because of the judgment of the United States, the U.N. Security Council, the Geneva Conference or the Geneva Communique”.
One US official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, likened the menu of options to “spaghetti on the wall”.
Moscow says the Syrian government should be part of a broad coalition to fight Islamic State.
CB: Because France is a very loyal ally along with the United Kingdom of America and therefore there is no real disapproval of French action in Syria, or in Africa or elsewhere where its military is involved.
Militarily, however, the Kremlin’s move is largely for show ahead of the UN General Assembly, said Pavel Baev, an expert on Russia’s military at the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
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“These shameful double standards of the Europeans are not acceptable anymore and seen by everyone”. Majority have flown through Turkey and are then being pushed into Europe by the Turkish government.
