Russia Ready to Work with West on Syria Strikes: Putin
Moscow is ready to collaborate on airstrikes against the Islamic State with the U.S. and its coalition, Russian president Vladimir Putin said Thursday, but warned that acts such as Turkey’s downing of a Russian jet this week could ruin the chance of coordination.
“We are ready to cooperate with the coalition, which is led by the United States,” Putin said shortly after meeting with French president Francois Hollande at the Kremlin, according to the Washington Post.
While the statement marks Putin’s strongest commitment to working with the West in more than a year, it is far from the “grand coalition” in Syria the Russian leader had been calling for up until this week.
The West and Russia are still at odds over the future of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
Hollande said France was ready to coordinate strikes in Syria with Russia, but added, “Of course, Assad cannot play any role in the future of this country.”
The French leader flew to Moscow from the United States, where he met with President Obama to press for greater military cooperation and intelligence sharing between Washington and Moscow.
His proposal was not readily welcomed by the Obama administration, which has accused Russia of mainly targeting opposition groups – including U.S.-backed militias – instead of the Islamic State (ISIS) since it militarily intervened in Syria two months ago.
YPG: U.S. Troops Arrive in Syria
U.S. troops have arrived in northern Syria to train Kurdish forces to fight ISIS, Kurdish sources told AFP Thursday.
American soldiers are in Kobani and Hassakeh province in northeastern Syria to assist in planning offensives on two ISIS-controlled Syrian cities – Jarablus and the extremists’ de factocapital of Raqqa.
They are also expected to help coordinate, with local allied militias, the targeting of ISIS positions through U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, according to sources from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The director of the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdulrahman, said, “More than 50 American instructors have arrived in northern and northeastern Syria.”
They arrived in two groups during the past two days, Abdulrahman said, entering from Turkey and from the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq.
U.S. Central Command declined to provide details on the deployment.
“We have said before that we will be putting a small number of troops on the ground in Syria to coordinate with our partners there in a non-combat role. We will not be providing the specifics of their whereabouts or travel plans beyond that,” it said in a statement.
Kurds Must Attend Syria Opposition Meet: Leader
Kurdish groups in Syria say they deserve political and military representation at the Syrian opposition conference organized by Saudi Arabia scheduled for next month, Reuters reports.
Saleh Muslim, one of the leaders of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said that although Syrian Kurds have been the West’s most reliable partner on the ground in the fight against ISIS in Syria, they have not yet received an invitation to the Saudi-held conference.
While Kurdish militias have been the most successful ground force fighting the Islamic State in Syria, some rebel groups have accused them of collaborating with Assad’s government, charges the Kurds deny.
Muslim said the PYD expected to be politically represented by the National Coordination Body, a coalition of non-armed opposition parties and figures in Syria, but that military representation was more important.
Military representation would mean Saudi Arabia would have to allow the Democratic Forces of Syria, a newly created U.S.-backed coalition that includes the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, to attend.
“They are the main partner against Daesh (ISIS). Those forces are taking the areas liberated from the regime and from Daesh, so this group should be a part of it,” he said.
Recommended Reads
- Middle East Eye: Who Are the 70,000 Fighters the U.K. Will Be Backing in Syria?
- Reuters: The Scariest Thing About Islamic State? Its Kinder, Gentler Side
- International Business Times: Kurdish Forces Exploiting Conflict with Islamic State to Seize Land, Loot Villages, Arab Officials Say
- Reuters: More War, Diplomacy Not Seen Breaking Syria Stalemate
- Bloomberg: Memo to Putin: Syria Is Turkey’s Ukraine
Top image: Russian president Vladimir Putin, right, shakes hands with France’s president Francois Hollande, after a joint press conference in Moscow on Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015. Hollande was there to push for a stronger coalition against Islamic State militants in Syria, trying to unite France, the U.S. and Russia. (Stephane de Sakutin/Pool Photo via AP)