Russia remains ally but won't confirm military advance, Syrian officials say

Obama administration concerned after US officials say temporary housing suggests Russia could deploy up to 1,000 military personnel

 Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, speaks with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, left, in Damascus, Syria, on Thursday Photograph: Uncredited/AP

Ian Black in Damascus-Sunday 6 September 2015

Syrian officials have refused to confirm reports of an enhanced Russian military build-up in the country, over which the US has expressed concern to Moscow. Damascus insists, however, that Russia remains a loyal and supportive ally.

Media reports on Friday quoted Obama administration officials as saying Russia had sent a military advance team to Syria, as well as sending prefabricated housing units for hundreds of people to an airfield near Latakia, which the officials said also received a portable air traffic control station.

US officials said the temporary housing suggested Russia could deploy up to 1,000 advisers or other military personnel to the airfield, which is near the ancestral home of the ruling Assad family, the New York Times reported.

In a telephone conversation on Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov of his concern.

“The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the [anti-Islamic State] coalition operating inSyria,” the State Department said.

Kerry and Lavrov agreed that discussions on Syria would continue this month in New York, where the United Nations general assembly meets.

The Los Angeles Times reported that US intelligence has gathered evidence of possible military housing from satellite reconnaissance photos.

Russia has backed Assad to the hilt since the start of the country’s bloody civil war in March 2011. Following a flurry of international diplomatic activity that suggested a possible shift in that position, President Bashar al-Assad said in a recent interview that Vladimir Putin was standing by the Syrian government.

Assad is understood not to have commented on the issue when he met Russian journalists in Damascus on Sunday – though their interviews were not immediately published.

The US and Russia have been at loggerheads over Syria. Russia has supported Assad, while the US advocates a political transition to end his rule while backing armed opposition groups.

A US security source told Reuters the US would be watching to see whether any increased Russian might in Syria will be used to push back the Islamic State (Isis) or to bolster Assad.

The US statement appears at odds with recent hopes for greater co-operation between Washington and Moscow over the Syrian crisis. Western diplomats have said they believe that in the wake of July’s landmark nuclear agreement with Iran – Assad’s most important regional ally – Kerry is now ready to focus far more closely on Syria.

Russia has also held talks with Saudi Arabia, a key backer of the anti-Assad opposition.

The view in London and other European capitals is that there are new prospects for diplomacy, in part because of the intense attention being paid to the refugee crisis, but also because Russia is concerned by the increasingly prominent role being played by Iran in Syria.

Moscow has been reaching out to elements of the Syrian opposition in the hope of promoting a “managed transition” in Damascus. But it is unclear how an enhanced Russian military role, as reported, would be consistent with that.

• Reuters contributed to this report