SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – As the United States airstrikes starts against the IS in Syria, Russia is condemning the move, as they happened without the Syrian government’s consent. Russia like the United States wants the IS destroyed and thinks it must be defeated in Syria and Iraq. But as Syria’s supporter in international discussions about how to confront the Islamic State, Russia is insistent that US measures to target militants in Syria lack authority.
“There’s quite widespread suspicion here that the US will start to bomb the Islamic State but will end up bombing the Syrian army,” said Fyodor Lukyanov, a Moscow-based analyst and head of an advisory panel to the Kremlin on foreign and defense policy. “Russia is certainly not keen on making the situation in the Middle East more difficult for Americans than it is. But why help them? . . . It doesn’t seem to be in Russia’s interest to get directly involved.”
A spokesman for Putin said the Russian Security Council on Monday discussed potential ways to cooperate with other governments in countering the Islamic State within the confines of international law, a conversation front-and-center at the United Nations as well, as heads of state convene for the General Assembly.
At a Paris summit last week to discuss the Islamic State, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reminded Western countries that Russia has “been talking for a long time” about the potential for terrorism in the wake of the Arab Spring, “when the aim of overthrowing regimes was raised above the common goal of preventing the spread of the terrorist threat.”
Russia is not the only country that has questioned US plans for an anti-terror campaign in the Middle East. As US representatives solicited support for a coalition against the Islamic State, they ran up against other hurdles: Turkey will not allow attack operations from its air bases, while Egypt stressed that the focus should not be limited to the Islamic State.
Source: The Washington Post