Syria’s U.N. ambassador on Wednesday said Russia should be able to carry out airstrikes against the Islamic State group in his country – the first known comments by a senior Syrian official on that possibility since Russia began making new military moves in the ravaged country in recent days.
“Why the Americans are fighting ISIS with their fighter jets and the Russians should be forbidden from that?” Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told a small group of reporters, referring to an acronym for the Islamic State. “Does it make sense? It doesn’t make sense.”
He added, “After all, we are fighting the same enemy.”
His comments come amid U.S. alarm over Russia’s recent military buildup in Syria. Russia in recent days has sent about a half-dozen battle tanks and other weaponry to Syria, with the apparent goal of setting up an air base near the coastal town of Latakia.
READ MORE: Peace plan to weapons of war: What’s Russia doing in Syria?
Israel last week said Russian troops were setting up an air base there to deploy airstrikes against Islamic State militants.
Ja’afari dismissed those concerns, calling the recent activity the same kind of military co-operation that Russia and Syria have had for years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended his military assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and said it’s impossible to defeat the Islamic State group without co-operating with Damascus.
READ MORE: Obama warns Russia on helping arm Syrian government to fight IS group
Assad, in an interview that aired Wednesday with Russian media, did not mention the possibility of Russian airstrikes, and no senior Syrian official until now had commented on that possibility. Assad did not directly address the Russian military’s latest moves in Syria, but he urged the formation of a united front against the Islamic State group.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has offered to have military-to-military talks and meetings on the situation in Syria. The White House, Pentagon and State Department are considering it, and Kerry suggested that he favoured such an idea.
When asked what the White House would think about Russian airstrikes against IS in Syria, press secretary Josh Earnest said that “any efforts by Russia that are geared towards doubling down on their support for the Assad regime would be counter-productive and destabilizing,” with the potential to drive some Syrian citizens into the arms of the Islamic State or other extremist groups.
Earnest called for “an integrated, co-ordinated, constructive effort on the part of the Russians to support the 60-member coalition of nations that is working to degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State group.
Associated Press writer Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report.
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