Syria faces no prospect of "second Afghanistan" given that the Russian servicemen are not going to launch a land operation against the Islamic State terrorists that have occupied Syria, Professor Ruben Safrastyan, Head of the Oriental Studies Institute, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, says in an interview with ArmInfo.
On September 30, the Russian air forces launched an operation to destroy the ISIS positions in Syria. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, as of October 2, the Russian troops liquidated 12 command posts and numerous units of the ISIS military hardware.
"I do not think the lack of Russian land forces in Syria will affect the efficiency of the Russian aviation. Russians have much more opportunities to succeed in the fight against the ISIS than Americans given the big difference in their actions," the Professor says.
Safrastyan recalls that US servicemen have been inefficiently bombing the ISIS for a year. He notes that along with bombing, the US has also been supporting the terrorists given that the real goal of the US and the coalition is to liquidate Bashar al-Assad's regime with the terrorists' help rather than to destroy the ISIS.
"So, given the radical difference between the Russian and US strategies in Syria, the Russian air strikes against the global terrorism stronghold in that country are at least leveling the ISIS threat to Bashar al- Assad and all long-suffering people of Syria," he says.