Russia’s military intervention in Syria is helping to support the “butcher” President Bashar al-Assad, David Cameron has said.
The prime minister said Russian forces were not discriminating between Islamic State militants and others fighting the Syrian president.
Earlier, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Russia’s “unguided” bombing in Syria led to civilian deaths.
US President Barack Obama has said Russia’s strikes, which began on Wednesday, are “only strengthening” the IS position.
Cameron also said that Russia’s military intervention was “really making the situation worse”.
“It’s absolutely clear that Russia is not discriminating between Isil [ISIS] and the legitimate Syrian opposition groups and, as a result, they are actually backing the butcher Assad and helping him,” he said.
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a speech at the annual of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Sunday that if Russia wants to counter ISIS it should not support Assad.
French President Francois Hollande harshly criticizes Russia’s policy in Syria, saying that Russia is now an ally of Assad, not our ally.
Hollande said in his interview with a local TV channel on Sunday that ISIS is not a priority for the Russian airstrikes, urging Russia to limit its air strikes to ISIS.
Secretary of the political committee Anas al-Abdah stated that the Russia’s direct military intervention in Syria and its bombardment of civilian targets in Homs and Hama in direct coordination with the Assad regime is doing exactly what the Assad regime has been doing for over four years. He said that Russia’s targeting of purely civilian targets belies its claims about intervening to counter ISIS.
He points out that the Russian aggression undermines chances of reaching a political solution in Syria and bring it back to square one, noting that the UN Security Council must assume its responsibilities and intervene to stop the Russian aggression on Syria and return to the track of political solution. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
