Aleppo Offensive is Next Step in Russia’s Syrian Mission

Locla Editor

All signs that the long-awaited battle for Aleppo is due to start very soon.

But recapturing the opposition-held half of what was once Syria's largest city and commercial capital is just the next step in Moscow's mission.

It will not end either when Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] loses Mosul and Raqaa, the capital of its "caliphate". The aim, said senior Kremlin officials, was ensuring that al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front and its allied militant battalions are finished as a threat.

The coalition including al-Nusra, of which several militant groups supported by the West are also members, has been the most effective in their aggression against Syria.

The American criticism of Russian's mission in Syria is likely to end with the election of Donald Trump who has spoken publicly of his admiration for Vladimir Putin and expressed support for the Russian leader's actions against "terrorists".

The US President-elect had already stated that he is likely to abandon support for the so-called "moderate" opposition saying: "My attitude is that you're fighting Syria: Syria is fighting ‘ISIS' and you have to get rid of ‘ISIS'. Russia is now totally aligned with Syria. Now we are backing ‘rebels' against Syria and we have no idea who these ‘rebels' are."

Al-Nusra had been among the Takfiri groups which had received backing from the Gulf states but it is officially classified as a terrorist organization by both the US and Russia. It recently declared, in response it is believed to Qatari pressure, that it was severing links with al-Qaeda and renaming itself Jabhat Fateh al-Sham.

The Russian ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, told The Independent: "Jabhat al-Nusra is a terrorist organization which is part of al-Qaeda. They changed their name recently, but they remain a part of al-Qaeda. Then we have all these rebel groups which are supporting al-Nusra. Some of these groups are supported by the West, but they work with al-Nusra."

He went on to say that "Al-Nusra is a big problem, but as far as we are concerned, all the groups who break the ceasefire and carry out killings are terrorists."

Yakovenko believed that a proper ceasefire in Aleppo is impossible when "al-Nusra, who the Americans themselves say is a terrorist group, carries out attacks" on the Syrian army and are then joined by the so-called "moderate" groups in doing that.

A former senior Russian adviser to the Kremlin on foreign affairs commented: "There were media reports that the Aleppo operation somehow depended entirely on the timing of the American election. But, in reality, it was always going to be when all the logistical factors were in place. Of course, the outcome of the election offers new opportunities going forward for both the Russian Federation and the United States for a coordinated long-term policy to deal with terrorism."

The former adviser added, "It is not logical to focus just on ‘ISIS' and not al-Nusra," saying that the Russians had been very clear on the issue pointing out that both are "two sides of the same coin, they carry out the same kind of terrorist action."

He also believed that Daesh militants are joining al-Nusra Front, and al-Nusra militants had joined Daesh in the past; both attacked the Syrian army and civilians.

"Even the Americans have begun to understand that," the former adviser concluded.

A Russian fleet of eight ships led by the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, and including the nuclear-powered battle cruiser Pyotr Velikiy, are now in seas off Syria, ready, said the commander of the aircraft-carrier, Sergei Artamonov, to fulfil its task.

Source: The Independent, Edited by website team