Sir Malcolm Rifkind: Putin air strikes 'will inflame Syria'

Putin claims: Sir Malcolm Rifkind

Vladimir Putin will make the Syrian crisis “infinitely more dangerous” if Russian air strikes hit moderate rebel forces fighting President Bashar al Assad, a former foreign secretary warned today.

Moscow insists Russian jets attacked Islamic State targets yesterday. But Sir Malcolm Rifkind said all the evidence suggested that this was not the case — and that if, as reported, the moderate Syrian opposition had come under fire, it would escalate the civil war.

He urged Mr Putin to ensure future missions are against “unmistakably” Islamic State targets. “If he does so, then he is making a contribution to the international effort to get rid of Isis,” added Sir Malcolm.

“If he continues to target — as he did yesterday apparently — moderate Syrian opposition forces, then he is not only being dishonest, he is actually making what is already a terrible crisis infinitely more dangerous.”

US and Russian defence chiefs are expected to hold urgent talks to co-ordinate air strikes, after Moscow reportedly gave the US military just an hour’s notice of its attacks.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said there was a need to “establish channels of communication to avoid any unintended incidents”. US secretary of state John Kerry said talks will be held “as soon as possible”, adding: “It’s one thing to be targeting Isil [Islamic State], but the concern, obviously, is this is not what was happening.” France’s defence minister Jean- Yves Le Drian said: “Curiously, they didn’t hit Islamic State. I will let you draw ... conclusions yourselves.”

Syrian opposition activists said Russia bombed areas not controlled by IS in towns including Zafaraneh, Rastan and Talbiseh.

At the UN, Khaled Khoja, head of the opposition Syrian National Council, said 36 civilians, including five children, died. The claim could not be independently verified. But the Russian Defence Ministry said its warplanes targeted and destroyed eight positions of the terror group. It gave no specific locations.

Alexander Orlov, Russian ambassador to France, said the targets were installations for IS and the Nusra Front, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and that the planes were acting as air support for Syrian ground troops.

Russia is an ally of President Assad. America and Britain insist he must go as part of a long-term solution to bring peace.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in