Pentagon leaders say Russia is keeping up its military support for the Syrian regime despite pledging to withdraw forces from the country and help peacefully resolve its civil war.
“I’ve not seen a significant reduction of forces by the Russians, nor have I seen less support for the regime than there was before they announced that reduction,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
“As I look at it, despite some rotation of forces and so forth, it seems to be pretty much status quo today relative to before the announcement.”
“It was far from a complete withdrawal, despite how it was ballyhooed,” added Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who also testified.
Last September, Russia sent forces into Syria to support the regime despite U.S. warnings not to intervene on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s behalf against Western-backed rebels.
After a bombing campaign against the rebels that shored up Assad and a United Nations-brokered ceasefire, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 15 that Russian forces would begin withdrawing from Syria.
U.S. officials also began to mute their criticism of Russia’s intervention in Syria amid peace talks backed Washington and Moscow.
Senators from both sides of the aisle at the hearing expressed concern over Russia’s continued support for Assad, as the ceasefire now appears on the verge of collapse.
“Despite Putin’s pledge to withdraw from Syria, Assad’s forces, backed by Russia, now appear poised to retake Aleppo,” said Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.).
 

Distraught: Syrians walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings after air strikes on the rebel-held neighbourhoods in Aleppo.

“In March, President Putin announced Russia was beginning to withdrawing its forces from Syria, but as is often the case with President Putin, the public message is not consistent with the reality of events on the ground,” added ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.). He said the regime’s imminent takeover of Aleppo does “not portend well for the direction of this conflict.”
“I hope the secretary and chairman will provide their updated assessment on the military actions of the regime and Russian forces, and how these figure into our planning,” he said.
However, AshtonCarter provided little in the way of how the administration plans to work with Russia towards a peaceful resolution of the war. 
“Secretary [of State John] Kerry is trying to work on that,” Carter said. “That’s precisely what he’s trying to accomplish.”
“Where the Russians would do well is to make what they do correspond to what they say,” Carter continued.
“And that is to move the political transition forward; use the leverage that they have and that they’ve gained by intervening on Assad’s side to end the civil war and get Assad to step aside, while keeping some structure to the Syrian government that can then marry up to moderate opposition, whom we support, and create a life and a government for the people of that shattered country,” he said.
The administration is looking to step up its military involvement in Syria, with an additional 250 U.S. special operations forces heading to the country to help moderate rebels ISIS.

Source: The Hill, 29 APRIL 2016