Syria's foreign minister said Friday that air strikes alone will not defeat the Islamic State group unless they are coordinated with the Syrian government, as the international community continued to argue about Russia's role in the operation. "Terrorism cannot be fought only from the air, and all of the previous operations to combat it have only served its spread and outbreak," Walid al-Moualem told the United Nations General Assembly. "Air strikes are useless unless they are conducted in cooperation with the Syrian army, the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism," he told the 193-nation assembly. So far, UN efforts at mediating peace talks between the government and rebels striving to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have been unsuccessful. The four-year civil war escalated this week with Russia joining the bombing raids in Syria. Syria ready to join UN working groups: Moualem suggested that it would be impossible to end the crisis in his country solely through political negotiations. "No one should think that, after all these sacrifices and steadfastness for more than four years, they could obtain through politics what they could not win in the field, or that they will achieve at the negotiating table what they failed to achieve on the ground," he said. However, he announced that Assad's government was ready to participate in a series of working groups set up by UN mediator Staffan de Mistura aimed at hammering out the framework of an agreement on a future political transition for Syria. However, Moualem added that the results of the working groups would be non-binding. Moualem said that reforms related to democratic elections and the country's constitution would have to wait while the government pursues its fight against what he characterised as terrorism. "Syria cannot implement any democratic political measures related to elections, a constitution or the like, while terrorism is striking at home and threatens innocent civilians in the country," he said. Russia bombs rebel targets: Russian bombing continued for a third day on Thursday, as France and the US continues to voice concern that the Russian air force is concentrating its attacks on groups opposed to the embattled regime of its ally Assad, instead of specifically on the IS group. Russia and the West have clashed over how to address the crisis in Syria, with Moscow insisting that Assad's army must take part in the military campaign to defeat IS group jihadists. France is calling for Assad to step down and holds his regime responsible for the majority of the 240,000 deaths from the war. More than four million people have fled the Syrian conflict, with many thousands heading to Europe, which is now facing its worst migrant crisis since World War II.
