MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday dismissed a suggestion from Washington that Moscow is violating a UN Security Council resolution by using an Iranian air base for its bombing raids on Syria.
\nForeign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Moscow could be in breach of a ban on supply or transfer of warplanes to Iran without prior approval of the United Nations Security Council.
\n\u201cThere are no grounds to suspect Russia of breaching the resolution,\u201d Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow.
\nUS State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Russia\u2019s use of the Iranian base \u201ccould very well be a violation\u201d of a UN Security Council resolution that requires its prior approval for the supply, sale or transfer of warplanes to Iran.
\nBut Lavrov insisted that \u201cin the case we are discussing now, there was neither the sale, nor supply, nor transfer of warplanes to Iran\u201d.
\n\u201cThese warplanes with the consent of Iran are being used by the Russian air force to participate in an anti-terrorism operation in Syria at the request of the legal Syrian authorities,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing even to discuss here.\u201d Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov suggested that Washington needed to brush up on the specifics of the resolution.
\nHe added that the US-led coalition\u2019s bombing raids on Syria from Turkey\u2019s Incirlik air base are not permitted by the United Nations charter.
\nOn Thursday morning, Russia sent Sukhoi Su-34 jets from the Hamedan base in western Iran to carry out a group aerial strike against IS targets in Deir Ezzor province, the defence ministry said, calling the operation a success.
\nThe strikes with high-explosive fragmentation bombs \u201cdestroyed two command centres and large field camps for training terrorists in the area of the town of Deir Ezzor, killing more than 150 fighters including foreign mercenaries,\u201d the ministry said.
\nIran also defended Russia\u2019s use of the base, with Ali-Akbar Velayati, top advisor to the Supreme Leader, telling Tasnim news agency that \u201cthe presence of Iran and Russia at the request of Syrian government is legal\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday dismissed a suggestion from Washington that Moscow is violating a UN Security Council resolution by using an Iranian air base for its bombing raids on Syria. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Moscow could be in breach of a ban on supply or transfer of warplanes to Iran without prior approval […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n