Putin: Russian Airstrikes Aim to Preserve Syria’s Territorial Integrity

Local Editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin said one of the key objectives of Moscow's anti-terror airstrikes in Syria is to preserve the Arab country's territorial integrity.

Russia's air support "for offensive operations of the Syrian army also pursues a main goal of maintaining territorial integrity of this country," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov quoted him as saying during a Friday meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, the Interfax news agency reported.

Putin told Hollande that Russian bombers are carrying out their operation "in strict compliance with the international law" and "at the request of the Syrian leadership," Peskov stated.

For his part, Hollande told Putin that the airstrikes must be limited to attacking the "ISIL" terrorist group, not other terrorists operating in Syria, which the West labels them as "moderate rebels."

"What I told Mr. Putin is that the strikes must concern Daesh, and only Daesh," Hollande told reporters after the meeting.

Putin later discussed the crisis in Syria in a separate Friday meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The leaders "said very clearly that Daesh was the enemy that we needed to fight," Merkel told reporters after the talks.

Furthermore, on Friday, Russian media quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov as saying that the country's air force carried out six precision strikes against "ISIL" positions in Syria.

"Sukhoi Su-25 attack planes have fully destroyed a large landmine and improvised explosive device production facility, which was disguised as a gas container plant, in the area of Maaret-al-Numan, Idlib province," he said.

According to the Russian official, a nearby terrorist base was dismantled in the attack. Russian air force jets also targeted an underground militant command post in Hama province.

Though, the Russian raids had drawn criticism from Western governments and their allies in the Middle East, which had been supporting the militants operating in the region.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey released a joint statement on Friday, criticizing the Russian airstrikes that they said had not targeted "ISIL" positions.

In response, Russia's Defense Ministry said mainstream media reports about Moscow's operation in Syria were "total nonsense."

"These pseudo-sensations are total nonsense and haven't enough factual basis to name or even discuss in detail. I call your attention to the fact that the information provocations emerging today were prepared hastily before the beginning of the operation," said Konashenkov.

Syria had been gripped by deadly violence since March 2011. Syrian forces had since been battling terrorists on different fronts throughout the country.

Moscow began its military campaign against terrorists on September 30 upon a request from the Damascus government, shortly after the upper house of the Russian parliament gave Putin the mandate to use military force in Syria.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team