McCain slams Syria deal for empowering ‘military aggression’

On September 30, Russian Federation launched an air campaign against terrorist groups in Syria following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.

In Saturday’s telephone call, Mr Obama stressed to Mr Putin the need to relieve the blockade of besieged parts of the war-torn country so humanitarian aid can be allowed in, according to the White House.

“There is no evidence of our bombing civilians, even though everyone is accusing us of this”, Medvedev told a security conference in Munich.

He said it was very hard to imagine Syria being reunited.

U.S. Senator John McCain quickly responded on Sunday at the same conference in Germany by condemning Russia’s attack on Syrian territory, per CNN.

President Barack Obama urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his air campaign against Syrian opposition forces during a phone call Saturday, the White House said, a day after Putin’s deputy described relations between Moscow and Washington sinking to Cold War depths.

Speaking at the close of the ISSG conference, McCain accused Putin of using airstrikes in Syria “as a live-fire exercise” aimed at evaluating and upgrading Russian military technology.

US Defence Secretary Ash Carter said on Friday he expected Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to send commandos to help recapture Raqqa.

Norbert Roettgen, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s senior foreign-policy lawmaker, said Russian Federation has gained the upper hand in Syria’s civil war and expressed skepticism that the truce will take hold.

Earlier Sunday, Somalia’s president said military forces have made inroads in their fight against al-Shabab militants but the key to defeating them lies in providing better opportunities for the country’s youth.

What’s more, Lavrov noted, the agreement excluded organizations such as Daesh and the Nusra Front – both of which have been designated as terrorist groups by the UN Security Council and both of which are the ostensible targets of Russia’s ongoing airstrikes. But a Russian-backed offensive by Syrian government troops and their allies around Aleppo, the country’s largest city, has yet to stop.

But several Western countries have said there is no hope for progress without a halt to the Russian bombing, which has decisively turned the balance of power in favour of Assad after nearly five years of conflict. The former USA presidential candidate added that Putin wants the Syrian province of Latakia for a military outpost and to increase the existing refugee crisis in the West.