Interfax Ukraine: Ukraine’s Poroshenko cautiously optimistic on peace talks

The USA and Russian Federation agree on the need to fight the Islamic State but not about what to do with President Bashar Assad. Sure enough, on Wednesday, Russian jets began bombing targets in Syria.

In this Thursday, October 1, 2015, image taken from video provided by the Syrian activist-based media group Qasioun News, which has-been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, people gather near damaged buildings, in the aftermath of a Russian airstrike, in Dair al-Asafeer village, rural Damascus, Syria.

But the OSCE told the BBC the sighting on 25 September was the first it had on record.

However, the Kremlin admits that Russian “volunteers” are fighting alongside the rebels.

But violence has ebbed in recent weeks to its lowest level since a ceasefire was signed in February, even though Western diplomats say the 12-point peace plan is far from fulfilled. It said there were 14 new missions Friday, including targets in Idlib and Hama provinces.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it fully supports Russian airstrikes against “terrorist groups” in Syria. All the leaders, like President Barack Obama, are concerned about Islamic extremists who have seized territory and power in the chaos of Syria’s civil war – and now threaten attacks overseas.

The US-led coalition has been targeting IS for about a year and is carrying out near-daily airstrikes in Syria.

Ukrainian officials fear that by making himself an important player in Syria, Putin is hoping to leverage a better deal on Ukraine-particularly an easing of painful economic sanctions.

“I remarked to President Putin that where we’ve identified [Russian] strikes, only one was against Raqqa”, Mr. Hollande said, referring to Islamic State’s stronghold in northern Syria.

“We wanted to make sure that the withdrawal of light weapons… would start tomorrow morning at midnight,” he said.

Away from Paris, there will be a separate focus at the United Nations in New York, where Syria’s foreign minister is to address world leaders.

FLINTOFF: Lipman says that one of the strongest motives for Russia’s action in Syria may simply be that President Putin does not want to be seen as allowing a longtime ally in the Middle East to lose.

Washington is calling for Assad to step down and hold him responsible for the majority of the 240,000 deaths from the war.

Only Russian Federation produces the system and it was not exported to Ukraine before the conflict broke out, according to IHS Jane’s Group and the Stockholm worldwide Peace Research Institute, which track arms exports.

Hollande met with Putin in Paris earlier Friday, before Russian Federation had announced its latest sorties.

The main summit in Paris between German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko as well as Putin and Hollande to eke out a peace deal in Ukraine is scheduled for Friday.

“These issues have nothing to do with each other”, she said, referring to the twin crises pitting Russian Federation against the West. The US-led coalition has pretended to bomb Daesh (another name for Islamic State) for a year, without results.

Moscow’s intervention comes at a time when insurgents had been scoring major battlefield gains against government forces after years of stalemate in the war.