TEHRAN // Russia has stopped using an Iranian air base for launching air strikes on Syria for the time being, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday, hours after the Iranian defence minister criticised Moscow for having “kind of show-off and ungentlemanly” attitude by publicising their actions.
Moscow, which had used the Shahid Nojeh air base to refuel its bombers striking Syria at least three times last week, confirmed that all Russian warplanes that were based in Iran have returned to Russia.
The Russian defence ministry said on Monday that as long as Iran agreed, Russia could use the Iranian air base again, “depending on the situation” in Syria.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said that the Russian air strikes on militants in Syria were “temporary, based on a Russian request”.
“It is finished, for now,” Mr Ghasemi said.
Last week, Russia announced it used the airfield, located some 50 kilometers north of the Iranian city of Hamedan. Iranian officials confirmed Russia’s presence a day later.
Earlier on Monday, state TV quoted Iran’s defence minister Gen Hossein Dehghan as saying that Russia “will use the base for a very short and fixed span”.
Responding to a question about why Iran did not initially announce Russia’s presence at the airfield, Gen Dehghan appeared prickly on the state TV broadcast.
“Russians are interested to show they are a superpower to guarantee their share in political future of Syria and, of course, there has been a kind of show-off and ungentlemanly [attitude] in this field,” he said.
Gen Dehghan’s remarks also suggest Russia and Iran initially agreed to keep Moscow’s use of the air base quiet.
The United Nations’ top aid official voiced anger on Monday at world powers’ inability to agree on a truce to allow aid into Aleppo, warning of an “unparalleled” humanitarian catastrophe in the battleground Syrian city.
Stephen O’Brien told the Security Council that plans were in place to quickly send 70 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to eastern Aleppo if all sides agreed on a truce.
“As the UN’s humanitarian chief, this callous carnage that is Syria has long since moved from the cynical to the sinful,” Mr O’Brien told council members holding their third meeting on the crisis in Aleppo this month.
He renewed his call for a 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo, where the violence escalated sharply in July when regime forces surrounded the rebel-held east.
Meanwhile, in the northern Syrian city of Hasakeh, clashes again erupted between Kurdish fighters and pro-government militias on Monday, according to the Kurdish Hawar News Agency. The government and the Kurdish movement have shared control of the city since the early years of the Syrian civil war.
Syrian government planes bombed Kurdish positions in Hasakeh last week as the struggle for predominance in the city escalated.
* Associated Press and Agence France-Presse