Turkey, coalition partners, call on Russian Federation to cease Syria air strikes

Mr Cameron said: “It’s absolutely clear that Russian Federation is not discriminating between Isil and the legitimate Syrian opposition groups and, as a result, they are actually backing the butcher Assad and helping him and really making the situation worse”.

‘These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalisation, ‘ seven countries including the United States, Turkey and Saudi Arabia said in a statement.

He said Russian Federation is also failing to distinguish between Islamic State and more moderate insurgents in Syria.

The Ukrainian parliament earlier this year passed a law, calling local elections across the country, excluding the east since Ukrainian officials have no access to these areas.

To American officials, Russian involvement in defusing the Syria mess seemed just a few months ago like a useful spinoff of the Iran nuclear deal. President Obama has, once again, been totally outmaneuvered by Vladimir Putin.

“Rebel groups on the ground see Nusra as a partner”, Kozak said.

The Daily Beast website described Russia’s entry into the Syrian war as “bold, dramatic – and seemingly out of a spy movie” and as an effort to hijack Obama’s war on ISIL.

“They’ll spend most of their time going after everybody else that’s in opposition to Assad and then leave the world with the option only of Assad or ISIS”, Bucci stated. “And they will be there for a while if they don’t take a different course”.

His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the leaders “talked at length about Syrian affairs”, and the Russian leader briefed Hollande about how the Russian operation is going.

Washington and its allies oppose both Islamic State and Assad, believing he must leave power in any peace settlement. On Wednesday, Russian warplanes began air strikes in neighboring Syria, saying it would hit Islamic State “and other terrorist groups”. “Airstrikes are useless unless they are conducted in cooperation with the Syrian army, the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism”.

U.S. Republican Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and a frequent Obama critic, questioned the logic of talks on how to keep US and Russian militaries apart, known in military parlance as “deconfliction”.

The long-awaited summit in Paris on Friday is being overshadowed by global concerns about Russia’s military intervention in Syria this week. Hundreds of thousands of refugees have flooded into Europe.

Russian Federation has faced Islamic terrorist in the past, largely from Chechen separatists who have killed hundreds with bomb blasts in apartment buildings and market places. But rapidly shifting battle lines in the chaotic civil war can make it hard to distinguish which groups hold what territory.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi told France 24 television he would welcome Russian airstrikes in his country if Moscow made such a proposal, but that it hasn’t happened yet.

Hassan Haj Ali, head of the Liwa Suqour al-Jabal rebel group that is part of the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters one of the targets was his group’s base in Idlib province, struck by about 20 missiles in two separate raids.

In the Hama region, jets destroyed a command post and dozens of heavy weapons near the town of Kfar Zeita.

Under the Minsk agreement, pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine are supposed to hold local elections by the end of the year and hand back control of the Russian border to the government in Kiev. “Because he has astutely recognized the West’s priorities and linked them to his own”, said Alexander Kliment, Russian Federation director for Eurasia Group.