Russian arms worry groups in Syria talks

BEIRUT -- Russia has flown military jets and artillery to Syria, according to a U.S. official, raising concerns among Syrian opposition groups that the move will derail United Nations efforts to end the conflict.

The U.S. is not sure whether the Russian equipment sent to the Syrian air base in Latakia in the past three or four days is meant to support the government of President Bashar Assad or fight Islamic State militants, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information.

The Russian arsenal currently includes four Su-27 Flanker air-to-air fighters, 12 Su-24 Fencer low-level attack jets and 12 Su-25 Frogfoot air-to-ground fighters comparable to the U.S. A-10 Warthog, the U.S. official said Monday. It also comprises MI-17 and MI-24 helicopters, field artillery and armored personnel carriers.

"The Russian action in the last few weeks, putting ships and aircraft into the region, further complicated an immensely complicated situation," British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said in response to questions after a speech in London on Tuesday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said his country's military cooperation with Syria is in line with international law. At a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, Gatilov said aid to Assad is intended to make the fight against terrorism more effective.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that President Barack Obama's administration hopes Russia and Iran will back a political transition in Syria to end the conflict and blunt the Islamic State group.

Kerry said Russian and Iranian support for Assad is misplaced and will prolong the war. But he said the U.S. is ready to engage in an immediate dialogue with Russia to promote a peace agreement that would see Assad removed from power.

Russia's expanding military role in Syria comes as the U.N. Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura, is pressing ahead with an initiative meant to break the impasse in the war, which has killed 250,000 people in more than four years. The envoy is assembling working groups of Syrian government and opposition figures for a process dubbed Geneva 3, after two inconclusive rounds of talks took place in the Swiss city.

Although U.S.-led coalition airstrikes are estimated to have stripped the Islamic State of about 30 percent of its territory, they haven't been able to eliminate the group, which controls half of Syria and key provinces in Iraq.

Hassan Abdul-Azim, a member of a Damascus-based opposition group taking part in the talks, said he was concerned that the recent Russian moves would derail the U.N.'s efforts.

"We worry the political regime in Syria would interpret the Russian presence as a support for it and for its rejection of a political solution," Abdul-Azim said.

Retired U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, a former commander in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that while Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to shore up Assad, Petraeus thinks Putin's immediate objective in Syria is to solidify a corridor on the Mediterranean coast between the air base in Latakia and Tartus, where there is a Russian naval base -- its only naval base west in the Mediterranean.

Petraeus said, however, that the U.S. should not allow Moscow to push America into a partnership with Russia and the Iran-backed Assad to battle the Islamic State. If Russia wanted to fight the extremists, it could have joined the more than 60-member coalition and helped with airstrikes against the militant group, he said. He also warned that the U.S. should not rush to oust Assad without an understanding of who would seek to run the country.

Assad repeatedly has rejected calls to step down, telling Russian media this month that the president "comes to power with the consent of the people, through elections, and he leaves at the request of the people, not by a decision of the U.S., the U.N. Security Council, the Geneva Conference or the Geneva Communique."

Anwar Eshki, a retired Saudi general who heads the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, said the Russian presence is not meant to shore up Assad because Moscow knows quite well that "Bashar will go."

"But its commitments to Bashar stipulate that he stay as part of a transitional period," a condition Saudi Arabia, which opposes Assad, would tolerate as long as the president was stripped of his powers, Eshki said by phone from the Saudi city of Jeddah.

Eshki said the Russian involvement will lead to stability in Syria, which will give the effort against the Islamic State a better chance to succeed. The Syrian opposition should "put its hand in Russia's hand" to bring about that stability, he added.

"The Russian presence will prevent the expansion of Daesh and its occupation of areas" during the transitional period, he said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.

Information for this article was contributed by Donna Abu-Nasr, Tony Capaccio, Stepan Kravchenko, Tony Halpin and Eddie Buckle of Bloomberg News and by Matthew Lee and Deb Riechmann of The Associated Press.

A Section on 09/23/2015

Upcoming Events