Turkish PM says Russian campaign boosts IS in Syria

Turkey, which has long called for the ousting of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has been highly critical of Russia’s role in the region. The claim was dismissed by the White House and the Pentagon. Moscow is a longtime ally of Assad.

This would see a transitional government set up within six months, after regime-opposition talks, and elections within 18 months.

The actions, which started on last September 30th at the request of constitutional government in Damascus and in coordination with Syrian ground troops, led to disabling training camps, arsenals, and plants weapons and explosives.

Putting this resolution into effect depends on whether the terrorism-sponsoring countries come to believe that they have reached an impasse and have to change their position, said Shaaban, adding that now it is high time that the resolution be implemented if there is an worldwide will and real intention to stop targeting and draining Syria.

There is still no agreement on a definitive list of terrorist groups now present in Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, “this is a clear answer to attempts to impose on Syrians solutions to any questions, including the question on the future of their president”.

Russian Federation and Iran have been Assad’s main allies in the nearly five-year-old conflict, while Saudi Arabia, other Gulf Arab states and Western powers have supported insurgents fighting to overthrow him.

“The Russian intervention has had great importance in the Syrian crisis”, she told al-Mayadeen television. The so-called moderates had evaporated and the Free Syrian Army was a rump group stationed at an airbase in Turkey.’ The assessment was bleak: “there was no viable ‘moderate” opposition to Assad, and the United States was arming extremists.

The report also suggests that the Russian authorities were attempting to cover up the mounting civilian death toll. By then, it is expected, the list of opposition representatives to attend the intra-Syrian talks would have been compiled.