Why Is the West Worried for The Russian Military Presence in Syria?

• 09.08.2015, 12:58
•  Near East,  World

"To say we're ready to do this today - so far it's premature to talk about this. But we are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons," this was the response of the Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on the speculations that Russia has got ground forces in Syria to fight for incumbent president of Syria Bashar al-Assad, RIA Novosti reports.

As the Western media claims state television in Damascus recently showed footages, where according to Guardian, Russian armoured vehicles were fighting Syrian rebels alongside President Bashar al-Assad's troops. In addition a Twitter account, which is said to be associated with Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's Syrian branch, published images of what appeared to be Russian planes and drones flying over Idlib.

In the Russian media there was neither definite confirmation, nor definite rejection on the speculations. For example, Pavel Felgenhaeur, an independent commentator on Russian military affairs told "it was quite conceivable that members of the advisory mission occasionally found themselves in combat or had even suffered casualties,"  the Telegraph reports.

In the last telephone conversation between the US State Secretary and Russian Foreign Minister the sides are said to discuss the existing speculations on the existence of Russian troops fighting for Assad in Syria. The US State Secretary expressed concerns, while Russian official once again reiterated the words of Vladimir Putin mentioned above, adding: "Moscow had never concealed that it was delivering military hardware to the Syrian authorities with the purpose of fighting terrorists," is cited by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

Interestingly enough the other day Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Abdollahiyan also discussed in a phone call the situation in the war-torn Syria and Yemen, Sputnik News reports. In the conversation "the sides underlined that there was no alternative to finding a political solution to the Syrian and Yemeni crises in line with the international law and the UN Charter," the statement released by the Ministry reads.

Taking into consideration all the above mentioned one cannot but to ask a logical question: if both Russia and the US claim to be fighting against Islamic State terrorist organization, why should one side be worried of another’s military existence there, instead of cooperating with one another. The answer sounds paradoxical and simple at the same time: political interests of the sides again prevail in the region. And it seems that it will still take long time for the sides to realize or to be willing to realize  that those same political interests allowed the IS and other terrorist groups turn the region into chaos; into a one which will never let their political interests come true.