Russia pledges to continue military support for Syria's Assad

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday pledged to continue military support for Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad after Washington sounded the alarm over an alleged military build-up by Moscow in the war-torn country.

"We support the government of Syria in its fight against terrorist aggression, we provide and will go on providing it with all necessary military assistance," Putin said at a regional security conference in Tajikistan.

Russia also said that a dialogue with the US was “indispensable” when it came to finding a solution for Syria.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the comments when asked whether talks on Syria were possible between Putin and US President Barack Obama, Reuters reported.

It came as the Guardian reported that Russia – officially a firm ally of Assad during the four-and-a-half-year conflict in Syria – had two years ago offered up a solution that involved the president stepping down.

The suggestion was ignored by the US, Britain and France, Nobel peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari told the newspaper.

“It was an opportunity lost in 2012,” Ahtisaari said, adding that the countries were convinced that Assad was about to fall and so ignored the Russian strategy.

At the start of 2015, the UN put the death toll for the Syrian civil war at about 220,000. At the time of the 2012 Russian offer, it was around 7,500.

In the ensuing years, the conflict has been further complicated by the presence of the Islamic State group (IS) which Russia has said it is providing arms to Syria to fight.

Fighting the Islamic State

US officials have expressed fears that Russia may strike Western-backed rebel groups battling Assad and ultimately risk a confrontation with forces fighting IS.

Moscow has been pushing for a broader coalition of forces to take on IS, but key regional players such as Saudi Arabia have ruled out fighting alongside Assad. 

Putin said that Assad was willing to work with Syria's "healthy" opposition to find a political solution to the conflict but insisted that tackling IS was the priority.

"Undoubtedly, the need to unite forces in the fight against terror comes to the forefront today," Putin said on Tuesday.

"If Russia had not supported Syria, the situation in the country would be even worse than in Libya and the flow of refugees would be even greater," he said.

On Saturday, the Kremlin called on world powers to follow its lead in arming the Syrian ground forces, calling it the most efficient way of fighting IS.

“You cannot defeat Islamic State with airstrikes only,” Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.  “It’s necessary to cooperate with ground troops and the Syrian army is the most efficient and powerful ground force to fight the Islamic State.”  

Russia’s arming of Syria means it now has a significant military presence in the Middle East. On Monday, it was reported that Russia had sent tanks and artillery to the coastal Syrian city of Latakia, and had even provided accommodation for about 1,500 personnel.

“They [the military supplies] are inevitably accompanied by Russian specialists, who help to adjust the equipment, to train Syrian personnel how to use this weaponry,” Lavrov was quoted as saying to state media on Sunday.