Russia and US planes carry out "communications test" in Syria

The United States waged a separate air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq for more than a year, but has had little measurable impact on the Sunni extremist group.

Diplomats representing the United States, its Gulf allies and Turkey meet in Vienna Friday to discuss efforts in Syria, but failed to reach agreement on Assad.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharov said that it was "absolutely not" crucial that Mr Assad, who visited Moscow last month, remained in control in the future.

"What we did say is a regime change in Syria could become a local or even regional catastrophe", she said  that "only the Syrian people can decide the president's fate".

But her remarks appeared to suggest a difference of approach compared with Iran, which has sent forces to fight alongside Assad's military.

"When asked about this in relation to Russian foreign policy, Zakharova replied, "... We are not saying that Assad should leave or stay". "The preservation of Syria's statehood is fundamentally important to us", she said.

According to U.S. and other nations' intelligence officials, most of Moscow's air strikes in Syria since late September have targeted anti-Assad rebels and not ISIL.

Washington and Moscow signed an agreement on October 20 laying out rules keep their pilots away from each other in the air, after several close encounters raised the prospect of a midair collision or some other dangerous encounter.

Russia described it as a joint .

"The meeting... will possibly be with the participation of government representatives", he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed hope Wednesday that a list of the so-called moderate Syrian opposition groups ready to sit down at the negotiating table would appear soon.

Russia's Aerospace Forces will continue the operation as long as the Syrian army carries out its offensive against terrorists, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday.

A US military official said a US fighter aircraft and a Russian fighter aircraft conducted a communications test over south-central Syria to validate safety protocols agreed between the two countries last month.

 

Shortly after the bombing campaign began a group of US-trained rebels said their base in Idlib province had been hit by four Russian war planes.