On Tuesday, Russian warplanes bombed targets in Syria having taken off from a base in Iran. This is the first time that Tehran has allowed a foreign air force to use its aerodromes and, therefore, marks a step change, both in Iranian policy and indeed in Russian involvement in the Middle East.
Until now, apart from those based in Syria, Russian heavy bombers have been flying from Russia itself, allegedly looping around Turkish airspace, crossing Iran and Iraq and where necessary refueling in-flight.
The Russian defense ministry has confirmed that Tupolev Tu-22 M3 bombers and Sukhoi Su-34 fighter bombers flew from the Hamadan airbase, southwest of Tehran and hit targets in Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Idlib. Moscow, of course, said that the raids were against Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) and other terrorist targets. Syrian civilians and the Free Syria Army know better. The truth is that Iran has just made it easier for the Russian air force to maim and destroy all those who legitimately oppose the bloody dictatorship of Bashar Assad.
The cynicism of Vladimir Putin’s increasing engagement in the Syrian civil war is as breathtaking as it is challenging to the US-led Coalition, which, including Saudi warplanes, is assaulting Daesh from the air.
Washington and Moscow continue to talk about cooperation against the terror menace. The Russians say that the talks with the Americans to coordinate their aerial campaigns are looking hopeful. Such discussions have been ongoing since Moscow began its air strikes in Syria a year ago, allegedly against terror targets. But then since Assad brands all who oppose his ruthless rule as “terrorists”, the Russian claims are hollow and deceptive. So, too, it seems is their insistence that the talks with Washington are actually going somewhere. The response from the Obama administration is that they are not.
Russia’s tentacles are also closing in on Turkey. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using last month’s failed coup as grounds for a widespread clampdown on suspected political opponents. This week has seen the purge extend to Turkish businessmen, in much the same way that the Kremlin has clamped down on Russian oligarchs who were no longer considered to be on-side.
Erdogan has been to Moscow and the Turkish pilots responsible for destroying the Russian warplane that Turkey claimed had violated its airspace have been arrested, apparently on the grounds that their action was part of a conspiracy to sunder links between Ankara and Moscow.
It must now be wondered for how much longer Erdogan will permit US and other Coalition warplanes to fly out of the southern Turkish airbase of Incirlik to attack Daesh. Assad has used the terrorists as part of his overall defense against the FSA. They legitimize his claim that he is fighting a foreign-inspired terrorist incursion not a rebellion by his own people, appalled at his brutal rule. It is just possible to imagine that in a gesture of imperial disdain, Erdogan could ban his US fellow NATO member from Incirlik, while welcoming its use by Russian warplanes, perhaps initially as an emergency forward airbase from which to strike at Assad’s opponents.
