Russia to Target Syria Jihadists as Hollande Seeks Diplomacy

 Andrey Biryukov  Helene Fouquet  Henry Meyer

November 26, 2015 — 10:48 PM EET Updated on November 27, 2015 — 9:02 AM EET

Bloomberg

France and Russia agreed to coordinate strikes in Syria to increase the focus on jihadist militants, as French President Francois Hollande seeks to rally support against Islamic State before hosting world leaders in Paris next week.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tentative nod toward cooperation with the anti-terror alliance sought by Hollande emerged after the two presidents met for almost three hours in Moscow on Thursday. That followed Hollande’s talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this week in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

With Hollande insisting that fighting Islamic State and “neutralizing the terrorists” is “the only objective,” he and Putin said the two sides would exchange information about which areas of Syria are controlled by the country’s moderate anti-government groups.

“We will avoid striking them,” Putin said at a joint press conference after the talks.

The two leaders failed to bridge differences over Assad, an ally of Russia and Iran whose ouster is sought by the U.S.-led coalition. Hollande said Assad can’t play “any role” in Syria’s future, while Putin described him as a “natural ally” in the fight against terrorism whose fate must be decided by his country’s people.

In the wake of the downing of a Russian passenger plane in Egypt in October and the killing of 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13, Hollande is trying to forge a united front involving Russia and the U.S. But surging tensions between Russia and Turkey, a NATO member, over the downing of a Russian warplane on Tuesday have complicated those efforts. The government in Moscow is drawing up a list of measures to cut off trade and economic ties with Turkey.

While Russia will continue to influence the civil war in Syria, the bombing of the Russian jetliner “has forced Moscow to concentrate more on the threat posed by ISIS,”  New York-based Eurasia Group said in an e-mailed research note. “The best that Hollande can hope for is the assurance of greater coordination of strikes.”

European Allies

In Europe, Merkel and U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron pledged to stand by France in its stepped-up efforts to defeat Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Cameron urged lawmakers to back wider British air strikes in the region, while Merkel plans to deploy German reconnaissance planes.

“It is a fairly robust response, but it’s also quite clear that it’s really only France in combat and everybody else supporting,” said Jan Techau, director of Carnegie Europe in Brussels. European nations will “only look strong if they have a political strategy,” he said.

Efforts to rebuild ties between Russia and the U.S. and its allies are complicated by tension that flared after NATO member Turkey shot down a Russian military jet inside Syria. Turkey says the aircraft violated its airspace, which Russia denies.

Bombing Campaign

Russia and Syrian troops carried out a massive bombing campaign as soon as the surviving pilot was rescued, killing the rebels in the border area, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said on its website. Turkey has repeatedly asked Russia not to target the area, which is populated by Syrian Turkmen.

Russia also began economic retaliation on Thursday as Putin accused Turkey of pushing relations “into deadlock.” Russia announced that farm products from Turkey will be subjected to additional border checks and laboratory controls, saying that 15 percent of Turkish goods were found to breach Russian safety requirements.

Oil pared its first weekly gain in a month in part as Russia ruled out military retaliation against Turkey.

Striking Syria

Russia’s two-month bombing campaign in Syria has bolstered Assad, who controls a quarter of Syrian territory but 60 percent of its population, after almost five years of civil war that has killed about 300,000 people and displaced millions.

France has stepped up air strikes on Islamic State since the Paris attacks, deploying the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to boost the number of jets available for bombing to 48 from 12.

Putin said after the Kremlin meeting with Hollande that he expects information-sharing will lead to coordinated action on the battlefield. In contrast, Obama has said the U.S. can’t work with Russia unless the Russian military concentrates its strikes on Islamic State and fully commits to a political solution in Syria.

Vienna Talks

Reflecting the obstacles, the political process in Syria remains deadlocked. An international conference in Vienna this month adopted a goal to start talks between the Syrian government and opposition by Jan. 1. Outside powers in the negotiations, including the U.S., Russia and regional players, haven’t agreed on which groups in Syria are terrorist organizations and which can take part in the peace talks.

There’s no chance that Russia will formally join the coalition against Islamic State because of divisions on Syria and the confrontation with Europe and the U.S. over Ukraine, Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Moscow-based Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a research group that advises the Kremlin, said by phone.

If the two sides can agree on an arrangement to ensure they “don’t interfere with each other,” that would already be a “big success,” Lukyanov said.