US in proxy war with Russia over Syria: McCain

US Republican Senator John McCain says President Barack Obama’s failure in Syria has led the United States to fight a proxy war with Russia in the Arab country.

“Of course it is [a proxy war], and when the president says we’re not going to have that strategy, we don’t have a strategy. Excuse me? We don’t have a strategy,”  McCain told CNN on Sunday.

“But more importantly, John Kerry called [Russian foreign minister Sergei] Lavrov three times to find out what was going on, the president had a 90-minute meeting with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, then 48 hours later a Russian general shows up at our embassy in Baghdad to give us an hour’s warning that strikes are commencing,” he added.

Obama, however, said on Friday, “We’re not going to make Syria into a proxy war between the United States and Russia. That would be bad strategy on our part."

“This is not some superpower chessboard contest,” the president added.

Regarding McCain’s remarks, former CIA contractor Steven D Kelley told Press TV that “all of this is nonsense, because certainly the Russians have fulfilled the job.”

“Russia is showing the world the proper way of dealing with liars and John McCain, of course, seems to have become the face of American lies and the hypocrisy. He still insists that there is some difference between the moderates and ISIS or ISIL,” Kelley said.

McCain suggested that the US should “stop the barrel bombing [in Syria], establish a no-fly zone, arm the Kurds, get some forward air controllers at work there, build up the Free Syrian Army again and it’s not too late.”

Russia launched its air campaign against Daesh Takfiri terrorists in Syria on Wednesday. The airstrikes began hours after Washington refused to comply with Moscow’s demand to take its warplanes out of Syria.

The chairman of the Senate armed forces committee further said, Putin’s strategy was to “provide us with a choice between Isis (ISIL) and [Syrian President] Bashar Assad.”

He said the Russian leader was “treating the United States with disdain and contempt” over Syria.

Putin, however, has repeatedly assured that Russian fighter jets were targeting ISIL terrorists. Yet the White House says it could not confirm who the Russian military was targeting.

An Associated Press report on Thursday said that the Pentagon was considering the use of military force against Russia to protect US-trained militants in Syria.

Quoting US authorities, the report said senior military leaders and defense officials are also weighing the risks of using force in response to a Russian attack.

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