US Sending More Troops to Syria Reduces Chances for Settlement – Opposition

The US decision to send more troops to Syria can further deepen the crisis in Syria and has no legal ground, Tarek Ahmad, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and the internal opposition's so-called Hmeimim group, told Sputnik on Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Washington announced on Monday additional deployment of 250 US military personnel in Syria to provide support to local forces fighting terrorist groups in the war-torn country.

"From the US side, it will be a new step into the danger of the Syrian crisis, and it may take this crisis into the direction where it will be hard to resolve it," Ahmad said.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov decried the step saying the US-led coalition's actions in Syria are illegal, and entering the country without consent from its legitimate authorities was a "big mistake." He added that the US decision reflects the desire to be able to use the coalition to attack not only terrorist positions, but perhaps also government’s forces later on in order to overthrow it, as it happened in Libya.

"Russian air force in Syria is legally working together with the Syrian army, according to the agreement between the Syrian government and the Russian government. But Americans don’t have such an agreement. In the Libyan example, there was a Security Council order to interfere, but in case with Syria, there is no Security Council to let any country interfere without the approval from the Syrian government," Ahmad pointed out.

On Wednesday, a Kurdish security source told Sputnik that about 150 US troops have already arrived in the Kurdish-controlled town of Rumeilan in northeastern Syria.