Russia says must be decided which opposition groups in Syria are legitimate

The Lebanese Hezbollah group, which the military backs, has also sent fighters.

The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Maj. The Tasnim news agency quoted him on Monday as saying: “We don’t know any better person to replace him”.

Who is Syria’s legitimate opposition?

“There is a difference between the Iranians and the Russians”, Khoja said.

“We are not at all talking about what is called a transitional period”, Mr Mekdad said.

Human rights watchdogs have reported a massive increase in civilian deaths since Russian Federation began its air campaign days ago in the north of Syria – a rebel stronghold where Islamic State is not based.

Victoria Nuland, a top U.S. envoy to Europe, stated that to resume full cooperation with Russian Federation on Syria, Moscow should demonstrate “positive cooperation”, going on to say that “first, Russian Federation would turn its guns on ISIL and stop the carnage in and around Syria’s western cities”.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the test, carried out between one aircraft from each side over south central Syria, lasted three minutes and “met its intended objective”.

Over the past two months, the pace of US airstrikes has fallen off, compared to the previous six months, hitting a low of 117 airstrikes last month.

A USA defense official said Tuesday’s test did not amount to joint training with the Russians, as Moscow has described it in a statement.

The four and a half year long Syrian Civil war has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions.

“There will be a time and place when the opposition groups will be presented”, Trudeau said at a daily press briefing.

Victoria Nuland, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, said Kerry is hoping that if the US and others can “rope” Russian Federation into the diplomatic effort, it will lead Moscow to seek a peaceful solution different than the military intervention they are engaged in today.

“The Russian deployments can not be used to stiffen the Assad regime’s resistance to a political transition”, Patterson said. “It is the beginning of a political process”, said Irina Zvyagelskaya, a Middle East analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The meeting, which did not include any representatives of the Syrian government or its opponents, agreed to ask the United Nations to broker a peace deal between the regime and opposition to clear the way for a new constitution and UN-supervised elections.

But divisions remain on the fate of Assad, with Russian Federation and Iran resisting pressure from Western powers and Saudi Arabia to force the Syrian leader from power.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed alliance of Arab, Kurdish and Assyrian rebel groups, is making gains against Islamic State forces in northeastern Syria’s al-Hasakah province.