DUSHANBE, September 30, 2015, Asia-Plus — Russia”s upper house (Federation Council) of parliament on September 30 voted unanimously to grant President Vladimir Putin the right to deploy the country”s military in Syria.
The Federation Council voted 162-0 with no abstentions to approve Putin”s request.
Sergei Ivanov, the head of the Kremlin administration, said after the vote in the Federation Council that the move referred to the use of the air force only.
According to Russian media outlets, Ivanov said all the social and financial issues concerning the support of those Russian servicemen who will participate in the operation will be solved and the respective decisions have already been approved.
“The Syrian president asked the leadership of our country for military assistance,” Ivanov told journalists.
“The operation’s military goal is exclusively air support of the Syrian armed forces in their fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),” he said.
We will recall that in a statement delivered at the 70th session of United Nations General Assembly in New York, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted on September 28 that ISIL trains militants from many nations, including Europe, and Russia is not an exception, he said. Putin urged for cooperation with Syrian government forces fighting terrorists on the ground.
“We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government and its armed forces who are valiantly fighting terrorism face to face,” he said.
“We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad”s armed forces and Kurdish militia are truly fighting Islamic State and other terrorist organizations in Syria,” he added.
Russia has been providing military-technical assistance to Iraq, Syria and other states who lead the fight against terrorism in the region, he noted.
Putin proposed the joining of efforts and the creation of a broad international coalition against terrorism. He proposed discussions at the UNSC about a resolution aimed at coordinating forces to confront IS and other terrorist organizations, based on the principles of the UN Charter.
