Russia says not crucial to keep Syria’s Assad in power

Asked whether it was crucial for Moscow that Assad stays, spokeswomen Maria Zakharov reportedly said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station: “Absolutely not, we’ve never said that”. “The preservation of Syria’s statehood is fundamentally important to us”, she said. And that, in turn, has led to a rethink in the United Kingdom government’s position on extending airstrikes against Isis from Iraq into Syria.

But her remarks appeared to suggest a difference of approach compared with Iran, which has sent forces to fight alongside Mr Assad’s military and ordered in fighters from the Lebanese Hizbullah group, which it controls.

Aleppo and its surrounding province have seen heavy fighting since the Syrian army, backed by Russian air strikes, fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement and Iranian militiamen, launched an offensive on rebel-held areas last month.

Iran has provided Assad’s government with military and political backing for years, recently saying it has increased the number of advisers from the Revolutionary Guards on the ground there. 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?

“The Russian deployments can not be used to stiffen the Assad regime’s resistance to a political transition”, Patterson said. The outcome of these talks should be the starting of a political process to change the constitution and then to have an election. “We are not at all talking about what is called a transitional period”, Faisal Mekdad said during a visit to Iran.

President Assad won a new seven-year term by a landslide last year in a vote his critics condemned as a sham.

Also on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his government’s goal in Syria is “to rebuff terrorists”.

The organization noted that it was not yet clear whether the attacks had been conducted by the Russian air force (operating in Syria since September 30) or the US-led worldwide coalition.

“The regime continues to barrel bomb its own citizens with impunity, perhaps even emboldened by Moscow’s help”, Nuland said.

Russian Federation described it as a joint military exercise, but the Pentagon said calling it a military “exercise” was incorrect and that it was only a test. Mr. Oleh Belokolos, a Ukrainian foreign policy expert, returned to Viewpoint to discuss to progress of the talks and share his opinion on the future of the conflict which has killed more than 250,000 people since it began in 2011.

“Now we are in contact with the representatives of different opposition groups to get them to come to Moscow”.

Russian Federation said that it handed Saudi Arabia and the United States a list at the Vienna talks of dozens of Syrian opposition figures with whom it is liaising in a bid to thrash out who each side thinks represents the factious opposition.

“Moscow has cynically tried to claim that its strikes are focused on terrorists, but so far, 85 to 90 percent of Syrian strikes have hit the moderate Syrian opposition and they have killed civilians in the process”, she said.

Contrary to what Moscow would like the world to believe, Russian airstrikes in Syria are not only not hurting the Islamic State (ISIS) but are actually helping the jihadist group, a leading British defence analyst disclosed.