News / Interviews

Iran-Russia cooperation has got US neo-cons scared: Analyst

Thursday, 18 August 2016 7:44 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 18 August 2016 8:22 AM ]

This video grab taken on August 16, 2016 shows a Russian bomber Tupolev Tu-22M3 conducting an airstrike in Syria. (AFP photo)

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mark Sleboda, an international relations and security analyst, and Lawrence J. Korb, a US foreign policy and national security analyst, to discuss a recent surge in cooperation between Iran and Russia to fight terrorism in Syria.

Iranian officials have confirmed that Russian bombers were allowed to refuel at a base in western Iran for airstrikes against terrorist positions in Syria.

Sleboda praised "greater military and geopolitical cooperation" between Russia and Iran, saying it "has got US neo-cons scared and frothing at the mouth."

The cooperation, he said, "is a direct consequence of US and Saudi regime change operations, destabilizing the region first in Iraq, then in Libya, now in Syria with the US-backed Saudi invasion of Yemen as well.”

Sleboda predicted some “immediate benefits” from this cooperation in Syria’s biggest city of Aleppo which is currently under the control of foreign-backed Takfiri groups.

The cooperation, he said, will help restore “stability” to the Middle East against the chaos created by the US.

The specific advantages of Russia basing its bombers out of Iran to carry out anti-terror operations in Syria are the “improvement of time and efficiency,” Sleboda told Press TV's "The Debate" program on Wednesday night.

"This will cut the flight and the ability of the terrorists occupying eastern Aleppo to evade Russian attacks.”

Sleboda said Russia’s air campaign against Daesh terrorists has been far more “effective” and “intense” than the US-led campaign in Syria.

Russia, he said, is carrying out the campaign in accordance with two UN Security Council resolutions, whereas the US "is illegally arming and training terrorists with US taxpayer dollars in brazen defiance of international law, attacking a sovereign state via a proxy war."

Korb told the program that Russia is not fighting Daesh and is rather propping up President Bashar al-Assad.

“If they [the Russians] were concerned about ISIS, they would not be bombing in the region of Aleppo," he said, using the alternative name for Daesh.

"They would be going to Raqqah which is where the ISIS is. Just like you are going to take Mosul in Iraq, you are going to have to take Raqqah in Syria,” he added.

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