Russia’s defense minister visits Russian air base in Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shakes hands with Mr Shoigu in Damascus.

Russia and the United States have agreed on the need to improve coordination to avert incidents while conducting military operations in Syria, the Russian defense ministry said on Sunday.

Hours after Carter spoke out, the Pentagon said Saturday that American and Russian military officers conferred by videoconference about Thursday’s airstrike.

On June 9, Shoygu arrived in Tehran to meet with Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan and Syrian Defense Minister Fahd Jassem al-Freij to discuss “regional developments and ways to strengthen and expand the fight against terrorism”, according to Iranian media. Russian and U.S. defense officials held a rare video conference overnight to address the issue.

The spokesman said representatives of the Russian Defense Ministry proved the bombed objective was more than 300 kilometers from the territory the US side claimed as the areas where acts the opposition, which had joined the ceasefire regime.

USA officials believe the strikes were launched to pressure the US into working with Russian Federation.

The U.S. accused Moscow of failing to prevent violations by Assad’s forces, while Russian Federation criticized the U.S. for its failure to encourage opposition groups it backed to pull out from areas controlled by Nusra.

In Moscow, the defence ministry said the discussions concerned “current questions of military and technical cooperation…as well as certain aspects of the cooperation in the fight against terrorist groups operating in Syria”.

USA military officials “expressed strong concerns about the attack on the coalition-supported counter-ISIL (Islamic State) forces at the Al-Tanaf garrison, which included forces that are participants in the cessation of hostilities in Syria”, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

The names on the memo are nearly all mid-level officials – many of them career diplomats – who have been involved in the administration’s Syria policy over the past five years, at home or overseas, the New York Times said. “In fact it is very limited with whether or not al-Assad is going to be held accountable”, he said. Putin added, however, that it would be “unrealistic” to expect that such a Cabinet would effectively take over power from Assad.

As soon as the US jets left the area to refuel, the Russians came back for another round of bombing, the defense official said. Gen. Konashenkov said, Sputnik reported.

Shoigu also visited the Hemeimeem air base in the province of Lattakia, where he talked with pilots and inspected the S-400 air defence missile systems protecting the base.