U.S.-led coalition: U.S. does not cooperate but works to avoid incidents with Russians in Syria
A representative of the US-led international coalition, Ryan Dillon, explained the situation regarding the interaction with Russia in Syria. Dialogue between Russia and the members of the coalition continues every day, said the colonel.
According to him, the Russian Federation will not participate in the offensive operation near Raqqa, which the coalition is planning. "As for the operation near Raqqa - no. But in other parts of Syria we have contact. We support the work of the hotline. Both we, and they, are working in different areas of Syria. They support the forces of the Assad regime. Our task is to continue the fight against the Islamic State. The hotline works (round the clock - Ed.) to avoid conflicts," BBC News quoted the military as saying.
Dillon was asked to assess the interaction with the Russians in the war-torn republic. "I would not call this an interaction. This is the elimination of conflict areas," he said. ''Our priority as a coalition is to help our allies from the "Democratic forces of Syria" and other opposition groups to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and to make the region and the world as a whole more stable. This is our main goal. We know that there are other forces at work in Syria. For example, the forces of the regime and Russia who supports them. We maintain contact with them through the hotline to avoid any incidents while we are carrying out our tasks.''
The coalition's spokesman did not answer the question of how Russian operations has changed the situation in Syria. "I will not talk about it. We operate in certain areas of Syria, we support our partners. Our campaign is going well and is on the right track. The Islamic State was unable to win back a single meter of territory that it lost since the beginning of our campaign…We can focus on our campaign and on our tasks, and Russia, it seems to us, is focused on its own tasks. I will not talk about issues or solutions that are in the political sphere. I know that the hotline works and helps us avoid most of the incidents between the regime's troops (Bashar al-Assad) and the coalition forces," the representative of the Western coalition said.