Russia: Help Arm Syrian Govt To Fight ISIS

The most effective way of fighting ISIS would be to cooperate and help the Syrian government, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday, reported The Associated Press.

However, the US and its allies may not agree. Since the Syrian civil war of 2011, they have been working to overthrow the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and are now supporting moderate rebels to fight the Syrian government forces as well as ISIS. In the last four years, more than 250,000 civilian lives have been lost, while more than 11 million have been ousted.

There are different viewpoints on the issue. While the US blames Assad for the conflict and crisis, experts such as former U.S. Representative Ron Paul blame "years of U.S. interventionism".

It was in September 2014 that U.S. forces began to have some bombing drives against ISIS within Syria, however, U.S. intelligence reports say that the war has not borne results, even as the ISIS is not weaker than when the bombing started.

Lavrov appears to agree: "You cannot defeat Islamic State with air strikes only. It's necessary to cooperate with ground troops and the Syrian army is the most efficient and powerful ground force to fight the IS."

So far, the US is refusing to cooperate with the Syrian government forces.

When Russia began to send military equipment and troops into Syria, the U.S. and NATO were worried, as it was viewed as an attempt to strengthen Assad, reports Al Jazeera.

Lavrov, though, said that it was not to reinforce Assad, but only to help fight terrorism.

"I can only say once again that our servicemen and military experts are there to service Russian military hardware, to assist the Syrian army in using this hardware," he said at the news conference in Moscow. "And we will continue to supply it to the Syrian government in order to ensure its proper combat readiness in its fight against terrorism," according to hngn.