Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday to discuss reports of a Russian military build-up in Syria.
“The Secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL Coalition operating in Syria,” an alert issued by the State Department said.
Reports from U.S. officials this week indicate Russian movement in the area, noting prefabricated housing units being shipped to the area could eventually accommodate as many as 2,000 to 3,000 personnel. This would enable Russia to transport military supplies to support the Syrian government.
John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said that support for the Syrian government would “call into question any Russian commitment to a peaceful settlement.”
Syria has been torn apart since a civil war broke out in 2011. The United Nations is investigating reports that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against his own people, and the Obama administration has long contended that Assad should step down. In 2013, the administration proposed that the U.S. begin a bombing campaign against him, but a backlash in public opinion prevented the plan. It subsequently became clear that elements of the Islamic State were also involved in the rebellion against Assad.
The U.S. has led a coalition of Arab states in airstrikes against Islamic State elements inside Syria since September 2014.
Putin has said that he was open to an “international coalition” to quash terrorists in Syria, but has said he is not impressed by U.S. efforts to date.
“We see what is going on — the American [air units] are making airstrikes,” Putin said, according to Russian state-owned media. “It is premature to say that we are ready to do the same.”
Putin has also criticized the Obama administration’s fixation on removing Assad. “People are running away not from [Assad] but from [the] Islamic State,” Putin told Russian, state-owned RIA Novosti on Friday. He pointed out that the Islamic State is “committing atrocities” in “large portions” of Syria and Iraq.
“They [Islamic State] kill hundreds and thousands of people, burn them alive or drown them, cut off people’s heads. How are they people supposed to live there? Of course, they run away,” Putin said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group, said earlier this summer that the Islamic State controlled approximately half of Syria as of June.
Putin also called for “early parliamentary elections” and “establishing contacts with the so-called ‘healthy’ opposition and involving them in governance,” a proposal he said Assad agreed with.
Kerry and Lavrov, the State Department said, “agreed that discussions on the Syrian conflict would continue in New York later this month,” when the General Assembly of the United Nations convenes on September 15.
