Russia says US refuses to meet delegation to discuss Syria

The USA and Russian militaries are finalizing a memorandum of understanding that sets out basic air safety procedures in the skies above Syria, a US official said after the latest round of talks between the former Cold War foes on Wednesday.

While Russia’s ready to talk about its campaign with “maps in hand”, the United States only wants to hold technical discussions to prevent clashes between the nations’ air forces conducting bombing operations over Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told lawmakers in Moscow on Wednesday. “There’s simply no question about it. What’s important to note is that, you know, US and coalition pilots have extraordinary situational awareness based both on our capabilities as flyers and on our capabilities for information”.

The intention was to identify the plane and “not scare anyone”, the ministry said.

On Monday, European Union foreign ministers demanded Russian Federation stop targeting non-jihadist rebels while the UN’s peace envoy to Syria said he was heading to Moscow to promote a political end to the conflict. Retaking Aleppo is considered critical to the Assad regime and thought to be all but impossible without the recent arrival of Russian air power.

Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and a major commercial hub before the war, is divided between a government-controlled western sector and a rebel-held east which has been devastated by repeated shelling and barrel-bomb attacks.

The embassy’s residential quarters was hit by two shells. There were no reports of dead or wounded.

Jobar has been a battleground for more than two years, with the army trying repeatedly to retake it from rebels.

Syrian officials denied the claims, however, while a few Syrian rebels said that militia fighters from Iraq but backed by Iran were being deployed in the area.

Just three days later, two other senior officers with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed.

The Russian air strikes started in Syria on September 30, targeting the positions of the Nusra Front and the IS among other terror groups in the war-torn country.

Elsewhere on the ground, the Observatory said fierce overnight fighting in the key village of Kafr Nabuda in the central province of Hama forced pro-regime forces to retreat and killed 25 of them.

“Our guys are fighting for their lives”, he said.

Russia’s two-week-old air campaign has bolstered Assad and left the United States struggling to adjust its military support programme for Assad’s opponents.

Turkey considers the main Kurdish group in Syria to be an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has waged a bloody insurgency against Ankara since 1984.