Canada should align with Russia to fight ISIS in Syria, ambassador says

The Russian ambassador to Canada is defending his country's new combat role in the Syrian civil war and is asking Ottawa to join its coalition in the fight against ISIS.

Alexander Darchievsaid that Canada's participation in the U.S.-led coalition airstrikeswhich began more than a year agohasbeen a failed missionwithfew tangible results.

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"This undertaking, unfortunately, has proved ineffective and incapable [of stopping]ISIS, so, we truly believe that what we really need in Syria is a co-operative effort, because theterrorists do not distinguish between Russians, Americans or Canadians, they all consider us to be targets," Darchiev said in an interview with Rosemary Barton on CBC'sPower & Politics.

"We call everyone to join efforts like we did in the Second World War to fight [our]common enemy."

Russia this week struck at targets in Syria, a dramatic escalation of foreign involvement in the civil war.

The airstrikesbegan on Wednesday, targeting mainly central and northwestern Syria, strategic regions that are the gateway to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's main strongholds.

Russian Ambassador on Syrian airstrikes

9 years ago

Duration 13:06

Russia's Ambassador to Canada says Canada and Russia should align to fight ISIS in Syria

The diplomatdenied thatRussia's sole motivation was propping up Assad's brutal, but falteringregime, as the U.S. asserts.

He said that his country is focused squarely on destroying ISIS and other militant groupslike the al-Nusra Front and other elements linked to al-Qaeda.

West 'obsessed' with Assad

Darchievsaid that Russia, unlikeWestern countries, does nothave an"obsession" withAssad, who has been one of Russia'sclosest allies in the Middle East.

"You can't have political process [to end the civil war]unless you defeat ISIS, and Western obsession with topplingAssadwas one of the major reasons why ISIS was able to expand sodramatically."

"This [is the]major fallacy in the U.S. policy. You can't fight againsttwo groups:ISIS and against President Assad."

But theU.S. State Department today disputedRussian claimsthat its military efforts are directed at ISIS, and ISIS alone.

"They've been largely against opposition groups that want a better future for Syria and don't want to see the Assad regime stay in power," said John Kirby, a state departmentspokesman.

Kirby said more than 90 per cent of Russian airstrikes have been directed at the so-called moderate forces,whichthe West sees as its natural ally in the war-torn country.

But Darchievdismissed Western efforts to align with secularor moderate Islamistelements in the country.

"There is no such species, militarily, as the so-called moderate opposition. We are asking our American friends to show us who these people are," Darchiev said."We cannot distinguish between good and bad terrorists, this is [the] wrong strategy.

U.S. efforts to train and equip moderate forces in the country havemet with meagre success. The American military has trained only 50 soldiers after spending over $500 million.

"The only real forces on the ground are the Syrian government's army and Kurdish troops, and it's only they who can stop ISIS with air support from Russia and the U.S."

Darchiev failed to mention that his country is also fighting alongside the Lebanese militant groupHezbollah and Iran-backed Shiamilitias. The Canadian government has declaredHezbollah a terrorist entity, and a dangerous force that seeks to destroy Israel.

In recent years, these two groups have largely shouldered the burden of Assad's fight against opposition groups.Assad's army has faced massive casualties, and widespread draft dodging, since the conflict began in 2011.

"Russia had to act and act in an urgent matter tostop terrorists and not let terrorists cometo our doorsteps,"Darchievsaid.

Canada-Russian relations icy

Canadian-Russian relations are at a low-point,fuelled in large part by Canada's opposition to Russian involvement in eastern Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.

Darchiev, for his part,said that Russiawill work with any party that forms the next government and hopes to move past the stalemate.

"We have areas of common interest where we should have dialogue and diplomacy. Wehave common interests in the Arctic, we're northern countries, we're neighbours across the North Pole. We have a common interest in fighting terrorism we have business ties wecannot afford to stop talking."