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May 21st, 2015 
David Schulberg 
Moscow and Baghdad have been expanding military cooperation, President Vladimir Putin said, and Russia is ready to supply weapons to Iraq to aid the fight against Islamic State militants’ advance in the region, said Russia’s FM Sergey Lavrov.
“We will make all efforts to meet [Iraq’s] possible requests,
to ensure it has the defense capability and the ability to drive
out of its territories Islamic State [formerly ISIS, or ISIL] and
other terrorists,” Lavrov told reporters, speaking ahead of
talks in Moscow between Putin and Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar
al-Abadi on Thursday.
“We have very close and tight military-technical cooperation
[with Iraq],” he said.
“Unlike some other countries, we are ready to supply weapons
to Iraq without preconditions, based on the fact that Iraq, Syria
and Egypt are on the forefront of the struggle against
terrorism.”
Iraq has been Russia’s longtime partner and over the past two
years bilateral trade turnover has grown 10-fold, Putin said at
the meeting with Iraq’s PM on Thursday.
“Iraq has been our longtime and reliable partner in the
region. Despite all the hardships in the world economy and
difficulties in the region, our relations have been developing
successfully,” Putin said.
Putin said that Russia has been implementing major projects in
Iraq and Russian investments there are estimated at billions of
dollars. He added that Moscow will continue civilian, military
and technical cooperation with Iraq.
READ MORE: ISIS claims full control of Ramadi
after Iraqi troops abandon positions (VIDEO)
Meanwhile, in a major setback, Iraqi forces have retreated from a
compound they used as a command center in Ramadi, losing control
of Anbar’s provincial capital to Islamic State militants. Local
security officials said that the militants carried out mass
killings of Iraqi security forces and civilians, AP reported
Monday. The two days of fighting in Ramadi this weekend had
displaced around 8,000 people according to the International
Organization for Migration.
On Wednesday, IS militants captured Syria’s historic city of
Palmyra, a UNESCO landmark, after gaining full control over the
city. The group already controls wide areas in Syria’s north and
east. This was the first time the jihadists have taken a large
population center directly from Syrian pro-government forces.
Despite the IS advance in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon has until
recently continued to insist that the US-led air campaign is
working.
“We believe across Iraq and Syria that Daesh [the Arabic
acronym for the militant group] is losing and remains on the
defensive,” said Marine Brig. Gen. Thomas D. Weidley, chief
of staff for Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve
on Friday.
The US began its bombing campaign in Iraq in August 2014 and in
Syria the following month. Syrian President Bashar Assad
repeatedly pointed out that the bombardments are an illegal
intervention unauthorized by a UN Security Council resolution,
and so violate the sovereignty of Syria. He also said that the
Syrian army has been conducting ground operations as well as
airstrikes against terrorists which are larger than that those
launched by the alliance.
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Moscow ready to supply weapons to Iraq to help fight ISIS
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