Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman)

Russia and America are world’s apart on Syria - Moscow committed to continue combating the scourge of terrorism Washington supports.

On Thursday, Sergey Lavrov and Rex Tillerson spoke by phone, the call initiated from Washington.

Lavrov told his counterpart it’s “delusional” on the part of America to pressure Russia with sanctions, new US Treasury ones imposed days earlier.

They accomplish nothing other than rupturing bilateral relations more than already - why Moscow “felt compelled to suspend” a June 23 meeting between deputy foreign ministers of both countries.

Lavrov expressed outrage over US operations in Syria - making it harder to defeat terrorism, impeding conflict resolution.

Washington is the key regional problem, not the solution to ongoing wars it initiated, waging them endlessly without resolution.

In her weekly briefing days earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed outrage over a US warplane downing a Syrian Su-22 aircraft in its own airspace while combating ISIS terrorists.

“Given the fact that at the time of the strike on the Syrian fighter jet, the Russian Aerospace Forces were also flying combat missions in Syrian airspace, we regard this incident as…deliberate (US) non-compliance with (its) commitments under the memorandum on the prevention of incidents and ensuring air safety during operations in Syria, which was signed on October 20, 2015,” she explained.

She expressed concern over US forces installing HIMARS high-mobility rocket systems illegally in southern Syria - one of many flagrant US violations of international law in the country and elsewhere.

Separately on Friday, two Russian warships and a submarine in the Mediterranean fired cruise missiles at ISIS targets in Hama province, according to its Defense Ministry, saying:

“As a result of the surprise mass missile strike, command points were destroyed and also large stores of weapons and ammunition of the IS terrorists in the area of Aqirbat in Hama Province.”

Russian warplanes then “destroyed the remainder of IS fighters and their facilities.”

According to upper house Russian Federation defense committee chairman Viktor Ozerov, Moscow believes with near “100%” certainty that ISIS leader al-Baghdadi was killed in a May 28 airstrike - along with others in his chain of command.

Ahead of Russia’s Friday strike, Turkish and Israeli militaries “were informed in a timely manner…through communication channels,” not Washington, after Moscow suspended the bilateral memorandum of understanding on Syrian air operations in response to US military aggression against government and allied forces.

A Final Comment

An early June UN report raised concerns about “a significant increase in interaction” between Israeli military forces and anti-government terrorists on the Syrian side of illegally occupied Golan.

The report provides more evidence of Israeli complicity with US-supported death squads, committing atrocities against defenseless civilians along with serving as imperial foot soldiers for Washington.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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