US warns Putin’s foreign minister against dangers of increased aid to Syria’s Assad
Christopher Brennan — Daily Mail Sept 6, 2015
The United States has warned Moscow about dangers of increased aid to the Syrian government amid multiple reports that Russian soldiers had begun participating in the country’s civil war.
Secretary of State John Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday and the State Department said that he had issued a warning about the increased presence.
The call between the two diplomats comes as various news outlets that Russia has built an air traffic control tower and housing in western Syria for what some are called a ‘forward operating base’.
Russian government have long acknowledged that it sent advisers, specialists and weapons to the regime of Bash al-Assad, but denies that its soldiers are taking active roles the country’s battle against various rebel groups.
Speaking to an economic conference, President Vladimir Putin said that creating a sizable Russian contingent was not on the country’s agenda and that talk of direct ground troop intervention was ‘premature’.
However, CBS has now reported that the country has requested air right from surrounding countries to fly military cargo to their airfield near the Syrian city of Latakia.
Russia also maintains a naval base in the port city of Tartus.
Public statements from Russian officials are viewed as perhaps not telling the entire story of the country’s involvement given previous denials about the presence of Russian troops in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.
A statement from the State Department said that Kerry told Lavrov, that a Russian build up in Syria ‘could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL Coalition operating in Syria.’
The Israeli outlet YNet had reported on Monday that Russia was sending planes to bomb ISIS, though Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the claims.
Worries abound that Russians aircraft could have run-ins with US planes flying bombing missions against the Islamic State, who are also fighting the Assad regime.
Some think that Russian strikes against the terrorist group could also involve bombings against non-Islamist forces fighting the Assad regime, which the US and many Western countries oppose.
Putin also said Friday that Assad was ready for new elections and contact with the ‘healthy opposition’ that could lead to sharing power.
Unconfirmed video from Syria referenced in multiple media reports such as those in the Daily Beast also sees soldiers giving instructions in Russian aboard an advanced Russian-built personnel carrier.
Putin has previously mentioned hopes to create an international anti-terrorist coalition and had spoken with President Barack Obama and Middle Eastern leaders about it, according to Russian state-run outlet Sputnik
News about Russia’s possible injection of forces into the conflict, which has killed 250,000 and displaced millions of refugees, came as violence continued in war-torn Syria.
Anti-government violence erupted Saturday in a southern Syrian province that had largely stayed on the sidelines of the country’s civil war.
The violence in Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority sect, followed the killing of a prominent cleric in rare explosions Friday that claimed the lives of at least 25 others, activists and pro-government media said.
Rioters holding the government responsible for the cleric’s death destroyed the statue of late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and besieged security offices, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activist groups said.
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