MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. The military operation of the international US-led coalition in Syria has yielded no results, there is the impression that some Russia’s partners are completely mixed up, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday at the 7th annual VTB Capital "Russia Calling!" Investment Forum.
"We asked them: give us the targets you regard as 100% terrorist, and the answer was that they were not ready. We thought and asked another question: then could you tell us where we should strike? Also no response. No kidding, I’m not inventing anything, it’s really so. We have recently proposed to the Americans: give us the facilities not to strike at — also no answer. It seems to me that some of our partners are totally mixed up," Putin said. He added that the Western partners have no understanding of what is really going on in Syria and which goals they are pursing in the country’s territory.
According to Putin, Russia does not strive for leadership in Syria.
"I don’t want to discuss this for now but I want to note that we are not striving for some kind of leadership in Syria. There is only one leader in Syria — the Syrian people. We are striving for contributing to the fight against terrorism which is dangerous for the United States of America, for Russia, for European countries, and for the whole world in general," Putin said.
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Putin urges EU, US to work jointly to motivate forces in Syria towards political settlement
Russian President Vladimir Putin has voiced regret over the fact that the contacts with the United States are maintained only at the level of the military, while joint work to motivate forces in Syria towards the political settlement is needed.
"In my opinion, all of us should be interested in that [the settlement of the Syrian crisis]," Putin said. "Unfortunately, although this may be not bad for the beginning, the work is going on only at the level of the military agencies and only on military and technical issues, up to comparing the friend-or-foe systems on our aircraft. But I believe that this is not enough."
"If we want to be effective, if we want not to just shoot and carry out missile strikes and reach a political settlement, we must motivate those forces inside the country, and the conflict is complex, multi-faceted, to joint work between various forces on the territory of Syria itself," the Russian leader said.
Putin added that his conversation with US President Barack Obama had been very frank. "We saw our partners’ interest in joint work," the Russian president said. According to Putin, it is necessary to work with those people whom we may influence, "to persuade them to sit down at the negotiating table and finally begin the political settlement process." "We haven’t reached this point yet in our joint work either with the United States or with the Europeans, but, above all, the United States," he noted, adding that Russia suggested holding a high-level military and political meeting in Moscow. "So far, there has been no reply," he said.
Putin ready to send Medvedev-led delegation to Washington to discuss Syrian settlement
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called to be more serious about the work with partners on the Syrian settlement and suggested a Russian delegation be led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
"I said we are ready to send a big delegation to Washington to discuss, first of all, issues of the Syrian settlement," Putin said on Tuesday. "I think it can be a serious and representative delegation from Russia led by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev."
Putin said the delegation might include the top ranking military, such as a deputy chief of the General Staff, and security officers. "This work is to be taken to a serious, substantive level, if we want to work really efficiently," Putin said, adding it was likewise important to work with the countries of the region too, including with Turkey, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq. "Yes, there are very many mutual suspicions and mutual accusations, but if we don’t work towards a solution, it could never be found," he said. "We hope we will be able to move along the path of settling political problems."