Turkey, six countries voice concerns over Russia’s military actions in Syria

Turkey, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have called on Russia to stop its airstrikes in Syria, a joint statement unveiled by Turkey’s Foreign Ministry says.


"We express our deep concern with regard to the Russian military build-up in Syria," the English-language statement posted on the ministry’s website on Thursday says.

"These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalization," it says.

Russia launched airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) positions in Syria on Wednesday at the request of President Bashar Assad. 

Russia’s upper house unanimously gave President Vladimir Putin approval to use the Russian Armed Forces abroad earlier that day.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Russian Aerospace Forces were targeting the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups in Syria. Lavrov said that the US-led coalition was also targeting the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra."We have the same approach," Lavrov said.
  [tass.ru]
   2/10/15
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Related:

• Turkey and its partners in the US-led coalition issued a joint statement on Friday expressing their anxiety over Russia’s air strikes. 

• Russia estimates its air strike campaign in Syria could last three to four months, the head of the lower house of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee said on Friday.