RSS Feed
October 21st, 2015 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Russia and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoA) on the coordination of military flights over Syria. Once in effect, the agreement will result in 24/7 communication channels to prevent dangerous situations in the ever more crowded aerial military theater in Syria’s airspace. Meanwhile the situation on the ground has changed with some insurgent brigades disintegrating while a new front appears to be opened in Idlib province.
Courtesy of Tass.
On Tuesday Russian Major-General Igor Konashenkov told the press that the Russian and U.S.’ Ministries of Defense have signed a MoU and the Moscow received the signed MoU from the U.S. Tuesday morning.
Last week U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he was to meet government representatives from Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to discuss the situation in Syria.
Russia and Turkey have already established a hotline to prevent unwanted incidents. The agreement between the two countries was reached after two incidents in which Russian jets briefly entered Turkish airspace. Russia has also held talks with Jordanian and Israeli officials to avoid unwanted incidents.
U.S. and Russian military have previously held video conferences to discuss coordination to avoid incidents. Once the new MoU comes into effect there will be a 24/4 line of communications between Russia and the USA. A meeting between U.S. and Russian politicians is scheduled for later this week.
On Tuesday Russian Maj.-Gen. Konashenkov announced that Russian aircraft had flown 55 sorties within the past 24 hours, targeting 60 “terrorist facilities” in the Syrian provinces of Aleppo, Damascus, Deir Ez-Zour, Hama, and Idlib,
On Monday Syria’s Ambassador to Moscow, Riad Haddad, stated that airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition also had become more effective after Russia began its air campaign in Syria on September 30 – October 1.
Coordination between Russia and the United States as well as Turkey may also have consequences for Syrian civil aviation. Thus far, Russia is the only country that has a legal mandate for operating military flight in Syrian airspace. The Russian military coordinates its sorties with both Syrian military and civil aviation authorities. Coordination between Russia and the U.S. led coalition could eventually also contribute to avoiding tragic civil air disasters in the increasingly crowded Syrian airspace.
While air raids have caused several, especially ISIL brigades to flee in disarray, there appears to be opening a new front in Idlib province. Both Syrian and Russian military sources report of insurgents’ attempts to regroup and of a large influx of mercenaries in Idlib province. Another of the significant strongholds of foreign-sponsored insurgents is the town of Al-Shaykh in Daraa province. Resistance there may, however, soon cease due to the lacking supplies of ammunition.
The Russian air campaign in Syria has to a large degree focused on destroying infrastructure and logistics, such as command posts, munition depots, explosives factories, as well as convoys, thus frustrating the insurgents’ capability to continue resisting, while the Syrian Arab Army focuses on reasserting control on the ground.
Reports from Syria suggest that the populations in territories controlled by ISIL, Jabhat Al-Nusrah, The Southern Front, and other brigades increasingly deny cooperation with the self-proclaimed authorities even though such refusal comes at great risk.
F/AK – nsnbc – 21.10.2015
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2015/10/21/russia-usa-sign-moa-on-coordinating-flights-over-syria/
Posted in 
Tags: 
