French Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged Russia on Sunday to direct air strikes at Islamic State militants alone in Syria, as the West raises concerns Moscow will target moderate rebel groups opposed to Syria’s president.
Speaking to journalists on a visit to Japan, Valls said Russia should not “get the wrong targets”, echoing the words of French President Francois Hollande to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a Paris summit on Friday.
Hollande said he had “reminded President Putin that the strikes should be aimed at Daesh and only Daesh,” using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Valls also called on Russia to spare civilian lives, hitting out at President Bashar al-Assad’s sanctioning of the use of destructive weapons against his own population.
“We cannot attack civilians… Bashar’s regime continues to drop barrels of petrol (barrel bombs) and chemical weapons on civilians and that is intolerable,” Valls said, going on to state his preference for a political transition in Syria that would exclude Assad.