U.S., Russia to hold talks on Syria airstrikesOctober 1, 2015 - 10:50 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The U.S. and Russian military will hold talks "as soon as possible" to avoid clashing in Syria, the countries' top diplomats say, according to BBC News. Russian defence officials say their aircraft carried out about 20 missions against the so-called Islamic State group (IS) on Wednesday, September 30. But the U.S. expressed fears the targets were non-IS opponents of Russia's ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. is targeting IS with air strikes in both Syria and Iraq. Nato said there had been little co-ordination by Russia with U.S.-led forces against IS, also known as Isil. The U.S. says it was informed of Wednesday's air strikes only an hour before they took place. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal report that U.S.-backed rebels were targeted by Russia. Russia's Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said there was a need to "establish channels of communication to avoid any unintended incidents". His U.S. counterpart, John Kerry, said talks will be held "as soon as possible," maybe as early as Thursday. Photo: US Dept of Defence Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |