Putin: U.S. not helping war on terror; air-dropped ammunition will aid ISIL

Special to WorldTribune.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 13 insisted that Moscow’s priority in Syria is defeating Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) and the United States is not helping the cause.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. /AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin. /AFP

Putin claimed that his government, acting out of “respect,” asked the U.S. to provide Russia with ISIL targets and also notified the U.S. in advance of Russian air strikes.

“We asked on the military level to give us the targets which they consider to be the terrorist ones for sure, 100 percent. But the answer was: ‘No, we are not ready to do that,’ ” Putin said.

“Then we thought and asked another question: ‘Then could you tell us where we should not hit?’ Again, no answer. So, what should we do?”

The Russian president brushed off U.S. accusations that Moscow is focusing most of its air strikes on moderate rebels who are opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“What we are trying to achieve is to contribute to the fight against terrorism, which is a threat to both the United States to Russia to European countries and the whole world,” Putin said.

Putin went on to call U.S. air drops of ammunition to Syrian rebels a joke and said the supplies were likely to end up in the hands of ISIL.

“The United States has recognized that it (training program for moderate rebels) was a failure and right now they keep distributing ammunition, hardware, equipment,” Putin said. “Who will get a hold of those? And it is not a rhetorical question.”

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