Russia gives 'technical-military' aid to Syria: Putin

MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on the international community ton Tuesday to give military support to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Syrian, as Russia has, in order to win the fight against Daesh, Russia media reports.

Addressing the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the Tajikistani capital of Dushanbe, Putin acknowledged that Russia gave military support to Syria.

“We give technical-military support to Damascus and will continue doing it. And we call on other countries to join us in this,” Putin said, according to Russia Today,

He made the case that Daesh was an urgent threat with alleged designs on the holy cities of Makkah, Medina and Jerusalem that endangered Europe and Russia. “Moscow is concerned about [Daesh] IS-trained jihadists returning to EU countries, the [Commonwealth of Independent States] CIS and Russia,” the Russian president was quoted as saying.

He claimed that if Russia had not supported Syria, the situation in that country would have been worse than in Libya and the number of the refugees would have also increased manifold.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the U.S. has seen indications in recent days that Russia allegedly moved personnel and equipment into the area around Latakia.

As Washington continues to oppose Russia’s increased military support for the Syrian government, the Pentagon said Tuesday that Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has not spoken to his Russian counterpart since military aid was ramped up.

Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters Tuesday that Secretary of State John Kerry is currently leading diplomatic conversations with Moscow, “and if that changes for Secretary Carter, we'll let you know”.

At the State Department, spokesman John Kirby confirmed Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday, and that Syria was on the agenda for the call. But Kirby declined to further discuss the content of the conversation.

"Nothing's changed about the fact that we don't want to see the Assad regime getting any support," Kirby said. There can't be a role of the Assad regime in efforts to stabilize the situation in Syria, much less go against ISIL."

Putin also said Syrians are fleeing Syria because of war and the cruelty of terrorists, not because of the Syrian regime.

He also reiterated that Assad and the Syrian opposition should together fight terrorists such as Daesh.

"It is necessary to set aside geopolitical ambitions, drop so-called double standards, the policy of direct or indirect use of separate terrorist groups for achieving own goals, including removing the governments and regimes," Putin was quoted as saying by Russia Today.

On Sept. 4, Putin spoke for the first time about Assad agreeing to establish contacts with "healthy" opposition groups and including them in a government until an early parliamentary election.

“We are aware that there is a need for political changes and we are talking to our partners in Syria about it,” Putin told journalists on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Russian city of Vladivostok, adding: "We are not imposing anything, but we are ready to facilitate this internal dialogue in Syria".

The Syria conflict began in early 2011 when Assad’s regime responded with unexpected ferocity to popular protests that erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings.

More than four years of intense fighting has left the country divided between pro-Assad forces and a number of heavily armed opposition factions, which are often at odds among themselves.

Roughly half of the country’s population has been displaced by the violence, with more than 4 million Syrians now seeking refuge in neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.