Comment by the Information and Press Department on the actions of the US-led coalition against ISIS

A year has passed since the United States established a so-called international coalition against ISIS in circumvention of the UN Security Council. On the territory of Iraq, the coalition countries are acting on the invitation of the Iraqi Government, but in Syria they are operating without any coordination with its legitimate authorities. US representatives are making one statement after another about their refusal to cooperate with Damascus in anti-terror operations. Moreover, a number of countries that form the US-led anti-ISIS coalition continue to actively supply, with money and arms, anti-government formations that are fighting against the Syrian army – the main force opposing ISIS on Syrian territory.

 During the past year the United States and its allies from over 20 countries that are bombing ISIS positions in Syria and Iraq have substantially built up their forces. The US Middle East-based aircraft, deck aviation and Marine Corps, and more than 80 various allied aircraft, are involved in air operations. According to the US Congress, up to 6,000 foreign instructors, primarily from the United States and also Britain, Germany, Italy and Canada, to name a few, are training fighters of security agencies in Iraq. According to media sources, up to 700 American military specialists are training members of the armed Syrian opposition. Britain, France, Turkey and even Australia have stated and have partially implemented their intention to wage combat operations on Syrian territory without the consent of its Government under the pretext of the right to self-defence.

This raises a natural question: What have the countries, that are so closely keeping track of flights by foreign aircraft, achieved by sending their armed forces to this region?

Regrettably, the coalition’s achievements in the struggle against ISIS appear very modest. Air attacks (over 5,000 air strikes that have officially destroyed 7,655 targets) combined with operations by task forces (for instance, the elimination of ISIS financial manager Abu Sayyaf by a US special operations unit last May) have not stopped terrorist expansion. Militants continue to expand the “caliphate” both in Syria and Iraq. Moreover, the growing discontent with air raids conducted by the coalition, which led to numerous victims among civilian population, is increasing the number of local residents who sympathise with the extremists and want to fight under their banner.

Summing up the results of this year’s activities by the US-led coalition, which involves the world’s strongest military powers, it is hard to avoid a comparison with “the strange war” on the Mannerheim Line in 1939-1940. At that time, the West faced a military disaster because it was not serious enough in rebuffing a very dangerous challenge of the Nazi threat, and tried to redirect it toward the East.

In this context, we are again urging our regional and international partners to seriously consolidate efforts in countering the global terrorist threat on the basis of international law and the key role of the UN Security Council.

September 16, 2015