Russia tries to secure Assad's role in the fight against ISIS

(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande held talks in Moscow on 26-27 November. The main theme of the meeting was the coordination of both countries’ actions in fighting ISIS in Syria.

“It is impossible to fight IS without carrying out ground operations” said Putin “In this regard I think that the Syrian army is our natural ally”. RIA news agency cites Putin as saying: “We intensified airstrikes of the Russian armed forces against the terrorists in Syria. Our actions are effective. The fighters of the so called Islamic State and other radical groups suffer heavy losses”.

French President Hollande underlined after the talks that the main decision made was not to target groups that fight ISIS. It is important for the coalition to support those groups that fight the “Islamic State” said Hollande according to the Russian news agency RBC.

Both sides agreed to coordinate their air strikes against ISIS positions especially with relation to the oil infrastructure of the organization.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius in an interview with the radio station RTL prior to Hollande’s visit to Moscow stated: “We don’t want to send our troops this would be counterproductive. This task is up to the Free Syrian Army Kurds and why not the government forces”.

Free reign in the sky and on the ground

Russian Airspace Forces have been conducting air operations against the Syrian opposition since September 30. Though Russian President Putin ruled out any participation of the Russian troops in ground operations there is mounting evidence of Russia’s increasing involvement in the conflict.

Citing an unnamed Pentagon official CNN reported on 5 October that Russia reinforces its presence on the ground providing support to the Syrian army in its fight against the opposition.

Meanwhile in response to the downing of the Russian jet on November 24 by Turkish air forces the Russian Ministry of Defence deployed its S-400 (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) anti-aircraft weapon system in Syria. “Now we are able to secure our planes while conducting operations against ISIS and other terrorist groups in a more reliable way” said an official from the Ministry. Russian media reports Ankara has informed Moscow that Turkish jets are prohibited from entering Syrian airspace.

Downing of the Russian Su-24

Apparently the downing of the Russian warplane was used by Russia as an excuse to deploy its sophisticated S-400 system which covers a better portion of Syrian territory in its air base in Latakia. Meanwhile as claimed by the Turkish authorities no terrorist organizations in Syria possess planes which are the innate target of Russia’s new system.

Another issue is that Russia can now use the incident to justify an intensification of airstrikes along the Syrian border cutting off the armed opposition from major supply routes and therewith ruin Turkey’s plans to establish a “safe zone” in northern Syria. Such steps would eventually allow Damascus to concentrate its efforts on eliminating non-ISIS armed groups around Aleppo and Idlib.

Recent diplomatic initiatives originating from Russia have been directed at creating a broad anti-ISIS coalition on par with the US-led efforts in Syria. The principle motive here is to make Assad an indispensable part of the anti-ISIS fight and thus to raising the prospects of Assad’s political survival in Syria’s possible transitional period.

Since commencing operations in Syria Moscow’s strategy has so far been limited to airstrikes against the Syrian opposition forces. For the last two weeks Russian airplanes have been assisting the Syrian Army in combat in northern Latakia as Damascus plans to retake control of the Turkmen populated territories it lost in 2014.