US accuses Russia of 'throwing gasoline on fire' of Syrian civil war
Washington has accused Moscow of throwing “gasoline on the fire” of the Syrian civil war, rejecting Russia’s claims that its first airstrikes in the war-torn country had targeted Islamic State terrorists.
In a dramatic escalation of the conflict in Syria, Russia launched a series of airstrikes on Wednesday that it said were aimed at Isis terrorists but which mainly appeared to hit less extreme groups fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime, The Guardian reported.
The Russian gambit – the first time the country has launched major military action outside the borders of the former Soviet Union since the end of the cold war – came two days after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, spoke to the UN and called for an international coalition against terrorism to fight Isis.
Multiple reports from the ground, however, suggested the Russian airstrikes on Wednesday had targeted groups linked to the Free Syrian Army, the main opposition to Assad. A resident of Talbiseh in Homs said two airstrikes primarily hit residential areas of the town, killing about 20 people.
Ashton Carter, the US defence chief, said his understanding was also that the Russian strikes “were in areas where there were probably not Isil forces,” the closest that any US official went on Wednesday to declaring that Moscow – instead of attacking Isis – had attacked the enemies of Assad.
The veneer of cooperation that the US president, Barack Obama, and Putin had sought to establish at the UN this week was pierced.
“Russia states an intent to fight Isil on the one hand, and to support the Bashar al-Assad regime on the other. Fighting Isil without pursuing a parallel political transition only risks escalating the civil war in Syria – and with it, the very extremism and instability that Moscow claims to be concerned about and aspire to fighting,” said Carter at an impromptu press conference. “So that approach is tantamount … to pouring gasoline on the fire.”
Carter stopped short of demanding an end to the airstrikes, suggesting it was not too late for Russia to change its position.
Speaking outside Moscow on Wednesday, Putin said Russia would not “plunge head-first” into the conflict but would provide temporary air support for a Syrian army offensive.
Russia’s defence ministry confirmed airstrikes had taken place, claiming the targets were military and communication equipment “belonging to the terrorists of Isis”.
A day after the Pentagon announced that Carter was establishing a communications channel with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoygu, to “deconflict” any overlapping airstrikes, Russian officials told US diplomats in Baghdad that the Americans should avoid Syrian airspace during a Russian operation of uncertain duration. US officials rejected the demand.
A US defence official said: “While we would welcome a constructive role by Russia in this effort [to deconflict strikes], today’s demarche hardly seems indicative of that sort of role and will in no way alter our operations.”
He added that the strikes underscored the need for “meaningful deconfliction discussions very soon”.
Later on Wednesday, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov met and announced they were launching a new diplomatic initiative in the search for a political solution in Syria, perhaps meeting as soon as Thursday to discuss deconfliction.
They conceded that the two countries remained far apart on important issues, such as the future of Assad, but said they had agreed on some smaller confidence-building steps that might build momentum for broader progress.
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