The actions of the US military in Syria are a violation of the latter’s sovereignty and not part of any anti-terrorist action, Syria’s deputy foreign minister says. “We doubt that they [US troops] are sincere in their fight against terrorism. They do not coordinate their actions with the Syrian Army. This makes those forces illegal in Syria’s territory. [...]

The Russian military have invited experts from 14 nations to work on the flight recorder of the Russian Su-24 bomber downed by Turkey, but only two of them accepted their invitations, the Defense Ministry reported, before unsealing the device. [...]

The Russian Defense Ministry invited journalists to the guided missile cruiser Moskva deployed to Syria’s port of Latakia and demonstrated the advanced S-400 surface-to-air missiles stationed at a Russian Khmeimim airbase near the city. [...]

More than 30 Iraqi soldiers have been killed and 20 more injured in an airstrike carried out by the US military, an Iraqi said in a statement cited by Sputnik. “30 Iraqi servicemen from the 55th brigade of the Iraqi Army have been killed and 20 injured after an airstrike carried out by US aviation in the town of Al-Naimiya, Fallujah province ,” Hakim al-Zamili, the head of the Parliamentar [...]

US top diplomat John Kerry appeared to offer cooperation during lengthy talks in Moscow this week with President Vladimir Putin. Kerry said that US policy was not trying to isolate Russia, neither was it seeking regime change in Syria. Rhetoric aside, Kerry’s expressions of goodwill simply do not cut it. [...]

Britain is not in a rush to strike Syria, says Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, as it is revealed the Royal Air Force (RAF) has not struck an Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) target in the country for 11 days. [...]

It is a good sign that John Kerry visited Moscow and had high-level meetings, but we must remember that US foreign policy will not change on a dime, said Daniel McAdams, Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. Washington appears to be backing away from previous calls to isolate Russia... What is behind the apparent change in policy? [...]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is believed to be capable of going to great lengths to maintain his grip on power, which could lead to his ultimate downfall, expert on Central Asia Henry Kamens wrote for New Eastern Outlook. [...]

As the war in Syria and Iraq drags on, and violence in Afghanistan continues, the War on Terror seems to be lost. Will the US rethink its strategy? Will Washington have enough courage to admit mistakes and learn lessons? Will other countries - including Russia and Iran - be able to overcome their differences and unite in the face of terror? We ask CIA veteran, former National Intelligence Officer [...]

Turkey’s two neighbors and historical adversaries Greece and Bulgaria have witnessed sporadic protests denouncing Ankara’s remorseless in the shooting down of the Russian Su-24 plane, as well as NATO warmongering in general. Several dozen [...]

The FSB, SVR and GRU in Russia, while drawing all the right connections, cannot help but conclude that Washington is letting Cold War 2.0 escalate to the boiling point. Imagine Russian intel surveying the geopolitical chessboard. A Russian passenger jet is bombed by an affiliate of ISIS/ISIL/Daesh. [...]

Turkey’s president has blamed the downing of the Russian Sukhoi bomber on the pilots, who were “negligent and did not heed the warnings,” adding the incident should not affect strategic relations between the two nations. “We wouldn’t have wanted to come across such a [situation], but looking from another perspective, a mistake has been made in our sovereign area. [...]

As the leader of the international coalition against Islamic State, the US failed to ensure the implementation by its Turkish allies of the Syria air safety agreement, which was signed between Moscow and Washington, the Russian Foreign Ministry says. [...]

Ankara and Washington contravened the UN resolution on financing terrorism by failing to inform the Security Council about Islamic State illegally trafficking stolen oil, Russia’s UN envoy has said. “We’ve got serious complaints about [...]

Warplanes of the Russian task force in Syria deliver 30 to 40 airstrikes daily in support of the Free Syrian Army, the General Staff reports. Some 5,000 FSA troops together with the Syrian Army are on the offensive in Hama, Homs, Aleppo and Raqqa provinces. [...]

A Russian missile cruiser and a coast guard powerboat had to intervene after a merchant vessel flying the Turkish flag blocked a convoy transporting two drill platforms to a new location in Moscow's territorial waters. The decision to relocate them closer to Crimea was caused by the complicated international situation, according to a press release from the Russian Chernomorneftegaz state compan [...]

It was certainly not because the SU-24 posed any threat. The plane is old and slow, and the Russians were careful not to arm it with anti-aircraft missiles. And it wasn’t because the Turks are quick on the trigger, either. Three years ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan emphatically declared that a “short-term violation of airspace can never be a pretext for an attack.” There are [...]

With Russia itching to fight after one of its jets was shot down by Turkey, we assess why Putin's war tech might be better than many people believe. Vladimir Putin is not a man to back down from provocation, especially a direct, lethal provocation like the shooting down of a Russian Su-24 aircraft by Turkey on Tuesday. [...]

Syria will not negotiate with terrorists to end the conflict on their terms, no matter how hard the West tries to present armed gangs as grassroots political opposition, the country’s President Bashar Assad told Spanish News Agency EFE. The problem, Assad says, lies with the fact that large portion of armed fighters and terror gangs in Syria are foreign mercenaries, which the US and their all [...]

The threat by an Iraqi parliamentary committee to cancel the country’s security pact with the United States reflects Baghdad’s growing fears that Washington will not rein in Turkey, so that it must seek protection from Russia and Iran, analysts told Sputnik. Last week, Turkey deployed troops to a camp in Mosul in northern Iraq. Baghdad condemned the move as a violation of sovereignty and as [...]

The deployment of Turkish tanks and troops in Iraq is a gross violation of international law, and is being carried out with the implicit blessing of the United States, according to Russian Middle East expert Boris Dolgov. In an interview with Sputnik, Boris Dolgov, a prominent Russian expert on the Middle East, said that Turkey's move to send troops to Iraq is a gross violation of international [...]

In an attempt to predict Russia’s further moves in Syria, US diplomacy expert Robert Farley has put forward what he considers “Russia’s five next big moves in Syria”, which are set to come in the nearest days or weeks; however, as it turns out, the first four are already very active on the ground. 1.The Arrival of the Su-25 Grach (NATO Reporting Name “Frogfoot”) [...]