The Independent:
The United States and Israel have voiced concern about Russia’s intentions in Syria amid signs that Moscow and the West are being sucked further into the conflict.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will visit Russia next week to ask President Vladimir Putin about his reported plans to deploy advanced ground-to-air missiles to assist the Syrian government.
The French government said it would expand its existing air-to-ground operations against Isis in Iraq and would join the US in attacking Isis in Syria within the next few weeks. At the same time, Moscow is stoking up diplomatic – and domestic political – pressure on Western countries to abandon their opposition to the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad.
Mr Putin is expected to go to the United Nations later this month to propose a new “international alliance” against Isis. He will suggest that the only way to defeat the Islamists, and check the Syrian refugee tide into Europe, is for the West to swallow its pride and support Mr Assad’s regime.
Russia is a key ally of Bashar al-Assad’s regime (Getty)
The Syrian President was given a forum on Russian media to make the same argument. Mr Assad said that Western governments had only themselves to blame for the European refugee crisis. Millions of Syrians had fled the country, he said, to escape “terrorists” supported by the West and Gulf states.
“Stop, if you are worried about [the refugees], stop supporting terrorists,” Mr Assad said. The Assad regime uses the word “terrorists” to mean secular opposition movements as well as Isis.
Some of the estimated five million Syrian refugees now outside the country have fled from Isis-controlled territory. Many others have abandoned their homes to escape indiscriminate bombardment by Assad-controlled forces…
