Russian Federation to West: Drop Assad condition to unite against ISIS

And, as Putin’s performance at the G-20 summit in Turkey showed, Russian Federation is firmly in the middle of the fight. Another eight people were killed and 20 wounded in government shelling of an olive press in Sheikh Maskin, in the southern province of Daraa, it said.

Obama was already well into a stepped-up campaign against the group’s oil resources and that night USA aircraft destroyed 116 tankers hauling crude from seized fields. He said statements similar to that of John Kerry are made when the terrorists are facing defeat.

“We…are ready for practical cooperation with those countries which are part of the coalition and are ready to develop with them such forms of coordination that of course would respect Syria’s sovereignty and the prerogatives of the Syrian leadership”, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The president also pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin to align himself with the U.S.-led coalition, noting that IS has been accused of bringing down a Russian passenger jet last month, killing 224 people. US trade with Russian Federation makes up a trivial percentage of the country’s GDP. Off-topic, inappropriate or insulting comments will be removed.

Hopes for a quick political transition in war-ravaged Syria dimmed on Thursday as President Bashar al-Assad threw cold water on an ambitious timetable agreed at worldwide talks in Vienna.

“At the present time, there are more than 25,000 foreign terrorist militants fighting under the banner of Islamic State, including from Arab countries, Europe, Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States [a bloc of post-Soviet republics]”, Oleg Syromolotov said, quoted by state news agency TASS.

“Today at 09:00 Moscow Time, Russia’s Air Force delivered the third massive air strike at illegal armed formations on Syrian territory”, Kartapolov said.

“This is their response, and I think that there might be more”, he said, adding that he believed the attack was tied to Russia’s airstrike campaign in Syria.

“It’s often the case that in the wake of a major event, particularly a major tragedy, there is room to start talking about things and get past all the posturing”, Daniel Benjamin, a former State Department official under Obama and now director of Dartmouth College’s Dickey Center for global Understanding.

France has called for Assad to step down after a political transition, and its Western allies have criticised Moscow for mostly focusing its raids in Syria against Western-backed rebel groups.

Assad attempted to paint an optimistic scenario of a post-conflict Syria, where rival political groups participated in parliamentary elections and helped govern the country.

Assad has filled important institutions, including the military, with loyalists and any new head of state will seek to fire them because they will be seen as disloyal and could seek to overthrow him.

He named three reasons why people are becoming refuges, including a “direct threat by terrorists”, “the influence of terrorists in destroying much of the infrastructure and affecting the livelihood of those people,” as well as “the Western embargo on Syria”. “Maybe it’s getting through to them”, Talbott said.