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Russia committed not to bomb non-IS targets in Syria: French FM

Xinhua, November 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Friday said Russia guaranteed to bomb only Islamic State (IS) insurgents after it had asked Paris to provide it with a map localizing forces that fight Islamist militants.

"There is now one point which everyone agrees on and that is the objective of destroying Daesh. I think on that we are progressing following talks Russian President Vladimir Putin," Fabius said.

"He asked us to draw up a map of forces that are not terrorists and are fighting Daesh (Islamic State). He committed to not bomb them once we've provided that," he told RTL radio in an interview.

During a meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Kremlin on Thursday, Putin promised to step up military cooperation with U.S.-led coalition and intensify strikes against IS despite remaining differences over the fate of Syria's Bashar al-Assad.

Asked if France would send special forces on the ground as the United States did, to help group fighting IS, the French top diplomat said "There is a rule as regards committing special forces and that (is that) in general we don't say it".

"So we could do it without saying it and if we do, it would by definition be a small number," he added. Endit