France dismissed Russian suggestions on Friday its air strikes against oil installations in Syria were illegal, saying they were “an appropriate and necessary riposte” to attacks by Islamic State. Why is Putin angry over France bombing ISIS and its oil fields?
Because the oil fields provide ISIS with revenues that maintains the terror organization a viable entity. One that Putin can use to cement the position of his psychopath Baschar al-Assad. Putin needs ISIS to justify Assad.
President Francois Hollande will travel to Moscow on Nov. 26 as part of an effort to create a grand coalition to fight Islamic State, despite differences over the future of the psychopath Baschar al-Assad, whose key backers are Russia and Iran.
Paris launched air strikes against the Islamist group’s Syrian stronghold in Raqqa this week following attacks that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.
It has previously targeted oil installations under the control of Islamic State and said it aimed to cut the group’s main revenue stream, which angered Vladimir Putin apparently.
Russian Foreign Ministry official Ilya Rogachev earlier on Friday criticized France’s justification for the attacks, that they were self-defense according to Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. He said that was misplaced because Paris had not sought approval from the Syrian government.
France knows the psychopath Assad has used ISIS as a proxy to carry out the Paris Attacks. By depleting the ISIS resources, France hopes to finally annihilate this Assad proxy he is now using to terrorize the Europeans.
France has called for Assad to step down after a political transition, and its Western allies have criticized Moscow for mostly focusing its raids in Syria against Western-backed rebel groups.
French Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told reporters on Friday:
“The French strikes against oil sites controlled by Daesh (Islamic State) are part of legitimate self-defense. They are a necessary and proportionate response to the attacks carried out by Daesh.”
Russia this week launched massive strikes on Raqqa in response to confirmation that the group had blown up a plane full of Russian tourists over Sinai in Egypt.
On Wednesday Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said if the West wanted an international coalition against Islamic State, it must drop its demands for Assad’s ouster.
Reuters contributed to this article.
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