British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond argued Sunday that Russia is using “asymmetric warfare” in Syria to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The foreign minister blasted the Russians for misleading world players with their airstrikes — which, instead of being aimed at harming the Islamic State, are actually aimed at Assad’s enemies to bolster his regime, according to analysts in the U.S. and Britain.
“It looks like a classic bit of Russian asymmetric warfare — you have a strong propaganda message that says you’re doing one thing while in fact you are doing something completely different, and when challenged you just flatly deny it,” Hammond said in an interview with Reuters.
The comments come in the wake of strikes by the Russian military in Syria, which began last week in the wake of the United Nations General Assembly meeting. The strikes began after Russian President Vladimir Putin met with President Obama on Monday.
“You try talking to the Russians,” Hammond said. “They just keep repeating their position — that is by the way also the Iranian position — and it is just incredible.”
In addition, Hammond touched on what would be necessary to end the civil war that has plagued the Middle Eastern nation for four years. He remarked that a transition to peace was the recipe to end the situation, even if it means Assad stays in power temporarily.
“If the price for doing that is that we have to accept that Assad will remain as titular head of state for a period of time, do I really care if that’s three days, three weeks, three years or even longer? I don’t think I do,” he said.
“The key is that there must be a transition — at the moment there is no agreement with the Russians and the Iranians even that there should be a transition,” he said.
