BEIJING, October 13. /TASS/. The Syrian army currently needs support very much. Without such support, the country’s entire territory may be seized by Islamic State terrorists, Wan Cheng Cai, research fellow at the World Affairs Research Center of Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday.
"My personal opinion is that Russia assesses the situation in Syria very well and takes decisions in accordance with this assessment. The West should realize that Russia is capable of defending its interests and the interests of its allies abroad," the Chinese expert said.
A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry has already said that China supports Russia’s ongoing actions to fight terrorism in Syria, the expert said.
"This is our principled position," Wan Cheng Cai said.
"Western countries have already made a decision on the use of military force in Syria," the expert said. "Russia’s decision to use its armed forces will ‘counter-balance’ the situation in a certain sense," he added.
Russia’s initiative to form a wide international coalition to jointly fight against the Islamic State is very important and timely and may contribute to the improvement of relations between Russia and the United States, Dean of the School of International and Regional Studies of East China Normal University, Director of the Center for Russia Studies at the Chinese Education Ministry Feng Shao Lei said in a commentary for TASS.
- Putin considers US actions in Syria targeting transformer and power plant strange
- Putin: Operation of US-led coalition in Syria yields no results
- Russia ready to cooperate with all non-terrorist opposition groups in Syria
- Syrian army makes many important gains with air support
- New fighter jets join Russian Aerospace Forces' operation in Syria — Defense Ministry
- Russia’s operation in Syria plays key role in fight against terrorism — Iran deputy FM
"Russia always advanced important initiatives at key moments of international development, changing the direction of the situation development. In particular, this was in the autumn of 2013 when Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with an initiative of ‘chemical weapons in exchange for peace.’ This also happened at the current session of the UN General Assembly when the Russian leader spoke about Russia’s readiness to cooperate with various countries for the purpose of the joint struggle against the Islamic State," the expert said.
According to Feng Shao Lei, the presence of a serious threat to the interests of both countries creates conditions for reviewing their relations towards streamlining more active cooperation.
"In actual fact, as soon as an enemy appears and it is necessary to confront it jointly, a probability immediately emerges for restructuring the relations between Russia and the United States. Such a possibility appeared, for example, after the September 11, 2001 terror attack, but the favorable situation at that time did not last long," the expert said.
The Russian Aerospace Force’s actions will help the Syrian army liberate the country from terrorist groupings without massive air strikes destroying civilian settlements and claiming the lives of dozens of civilians," Vice-President of India’s Observer Research Foundation Nandan Unnikrishnan told TASS.
"Time has showed the ineffectiveness of the operations by the international coalition, which has been bombing in Syria and Iraq for over a year now," the expert said.
"Over 7,000 air strikes have failed to produce results in the struggle against terrorism and have only exacerbated the plight of local residents."
"I believe that the joint efforts of Russia, Iran and Iraq within the framework of international law and in coordination with the legitimate Syrian leadership will be able to defeat terrorism," the expert said.