Chinese troops reportedly are teaming up with Syrian forces in what is being termed as the deal that will allow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to stay in power.
A report claims that a Chinese naval vessel carrying dozens of “military advisers” is on its way to Syria and that Chinese troops will then follow, IB Times reported.
“The Chinese will be arriving in the coming weeks,” a Syrian Army official told the Lebanon-based news website Al-Masdar Al-Arabi.
The ship is said to have passed the Suez Canal in Egypt and be making its way through the Mediterranean Sea.
According to the website, the advisers will be joining Russian personnel in the Latakia region.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military news website, DEBKAfile, has cited military sources as saying that a Chinese aircraft carrier, the Liaoning-CV-16, has already been spotted at the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean coast.
Putin Defends Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin was recently asked about Russia’s presence in Syria, to which he replied that Russia’s activities are limited to supplying weapons to the Syrian government, training personnel and providing humanitarian aid for the Syrian people.
“We act based on the United Nations Charter, i.e. the fundamental principles of modern international law, according to which this or that type of aid, including military assistance, can and must be provided exclusively to the legitimate government of one country or another,” Putin told CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ show.
“He [Assad] is confronted with what some of our international partners interpret as an opposition. In reality, Assad’s Army is fighting against terrorist organizations,” Putin said.
Russia’s president added that US attempts to train a Syrian opposition to take on Islamic State have failed. The US had aimed to prepare up to 12,000 fighters, but only 60 managed to complete the training and only four or five actually fought with the opposition, while others fled to IS with American weapons, Putin said, citing US Senate hearings.
“In my opinion, provision of military support to illegal structures runs counter to the principles of modern international law and the United Nations Charter,” he said.
