Russian s Actions Based on the United Nations Charter

Iran’s president said Sunday that Syrian leader Bashar Assad must remain in power to fight extremist groups like the Islamic State group and must not be weakened, putting him at odds with the United States and key nations who insist Assad must go in order to achieve peace.

The Iranian president’s remarks came on the eve of the annual meeting of world leaders at the United Nations, where frustration is growing at the failure to launch talks to end the nearly five-year-old Syrian war. They also follow a surprise Russian military buildup in Syria, a longtime ally, to help Assad’s government combat the Islamic State, a move that has raised serious concerns in Washington.

They came on the heels of France’s announcement earlier Sunday that it had carried out airstrikes in Syria for the first time, bombing an Islamic State training camp in eastern Syria.

Months ago Iran produced a proposal to end the Syrian conflict, which has claimed more than 250,000 lives, but it is still under discussion with some unnamed countries. The Syrian government criticized France late Sunday for carrying out a series of airstrikes on an Islamic State training camp in Syria, arguing that the attacks were not coordinated with Damascus.

“The French president has not coordinated those actions with the Syrian president,” the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari told the Russian news agency TASS. “The French military acted without an agreement with the Syrian armed forces. It is impossible to be fighting terrorism other than in cooperation with the legal government in Syria and the Syrian military.

This is exactly what [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin meant calling the Syrian army the only legitimate force to deal with in fighting terrorism.” “This is an American coalition, not an international one and it is not based on the Security Council’s resolution and is not supported by a consensus,” the Syrian ambassador said according to TASS.

“We’re sure there were no casualties” among civilians, he added.

In New York, the French president said he would be meeting this week “all the partners” in the Syrian conflict. At the same time, he said, “The future of Syria cannot be with Bashar al Assad.”

Moscow pressed its military buildup at a new airbase in Syria Saturday, as Washington admitted rebels it trained surrendered ammunition and equipment to Al-Qaeda in a fresh US policy setback.

A decades-long backer of the Damascus regime, Moscow has steadfastly supported President Bashar al-Assad throughout four and a half years of war that has killed more than 240,000 people. Its recent deployment of troops and warplanes to Syria, combined with new arms deliveries to Assad's forces, appears to have prompted a significant shift in international efforts to end the conflict.

EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met Friday in New York to discuss "the need to bring the war in Syria, which has caused so much suffering, to an end," the EU said. US Secretary of State John Kerry was also due to meet Zarif Saturday in New York,

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his US counterpart, Barack Obama, on Monday.
 

Saturday was the 15th straight day Russian transport aircraft had flown in troops and equipment to the Hmeimim base in Latakia province on the Mediterranean coast, a military source told AFP.

Washington and NATO say recent spottings of helicopters, bombers, ground attack aircraft, tanks and troops prove Russia is building an airbase in Latakia, the Assad regime's coastal heartland. Russian military aircraft have conducted reconnaissance flights over Syria but not yet launched any strikes, the Pentagon said.

One senior Syrian official called Russia's military involvement a "turning point".

The United States has said it "could find areas of cooperation" with Russia if Moscow were to join the fight against the Islamic State jihadist group.

New setback for Washington -

The US has a $500-million programme to train and equip vetted moderates recruited from among the rebels fighting Assad, but it has faced repeated setbacks. That puts Russia in direct opposition to a US-led coalition which has brought military action against the Syrian government.

But Putin said backing Assad was the only way to defeat the terrorism rapidly growing in the area.
In a televised interview Putin said action against Assad's government would "create a situation" seen in countries such as Libya "where all the state institutions are disintegrated". He added: "There is no other solution to the Syrian crisis than strengthening the effective government structures and rendering them help in fighting terrorism."

Although the Russian president said there were no plans "right now" to put boots on the ground in Syria, he would continue to back Assad's "legitimate government".

Putins calls come as Britons also back a military offensive against ISIS.

From there Putin's forces aim to carry out attacks on ISIS strongholds in the Middle East, as well as US-backed rebels against Assad. The Russia president has also sent his generals to Baghdad to co-ordinate a policy with Iran and Iraq against the terror group. The opposition between America and Russia, which is also under pressure from NATO for the annexation of the Crimea, gave a sign of softening last week when US Secretary of State John Kerry talked of combining their efforts against ISIS, also known as ISIL.

China will be helping out the Syrian government in the fight against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIL/ISIS) by sending “military advisers,” media reports have claimed.

The report claims that a Chinese naval vessel is on its way to Syria with dozens of “military advisers” on board. They will reportedly be followed by troops. The ship is said to have passed the Suez Canal in Egypt and be making its way through the Mediterranean Sea. According to the website, the advisers will be joining Russian personnel in the Latakia region.

The news comes after Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria agreed to establish a joint information center in Baghdad to coordinate their operations against Islamic State militants, according to sources. “The main goal of the center will be gathering, processing and analyzing current information about the situation in the Middle East – primarily for fighting IS,” a military-diplomatic source told Russian news agencies on Saturday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was recently asked about Russia’s presence in Syria, to which he replied that Russia’s activities are limited to supplying weapons to the Syrian government, training personnel and providing humanitarian aid for the Syrian people.

“We act based on the United Nations Charter, i.e. the fundamental principles of modern international law, according to which this or that type of aid, including military assistance, can and must be provided exclusively to the legitimate government of one country or another, upon its consent or request, or upon the decision of the United Nations Security Council,” Putin told CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ show.

Putin reiterated his support for Syria’s regular army – the army of President Bashar Assad. “He [Assad] is confronted with what some of our international partners interpret as an opposition. In reality, Assad’s army is fighting against terrorist organizations,” Putin said.

Russia’s president added that US attempts to train a Syrian opposition to take on Islamic State have failed. The US had aimed to prepare up to 12,000 fighters, but only 60 managed to complete the training and only four or five actually fought with the opposition, while others fled to IS with American weapons, Putin said, citing US Senate hearings.

“In my opinion, provision of military support to illegal structures runs counter to the principles of modern international law and the United Nations Charter,” Putin said.

Back in December, 2014, China offered to help Iraq in fighting Islamic State militants, volunteering to assist with airstrikes, but said it would not join the US-led coalition against ISIS.