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Russian official says happy to talk to US about its military presence in Syria

Associated Press
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This Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2015 satellite image with annotations provided by GeoNorth, AllSource Analysis, Airbus shows Russian tanks and armed personnel carriers at an air base in Latakia province, Syria. Russia on Thursday strongly urged the United States and its allies to engage the Syrian government as a "partner" in the fight against the Islamic State group, and offered to share any information about its military supplies to Damascus with Washington. (GeoNorth, AllSource Analysis, Airbus via AP) (The Associated Press)

This September 2015 satellite image with annotations provided by GeoNorth, AllSource Analysis, Airbus shows Russian transport aircraft, helicopters, tanks, trucks and armed personnel carriers at an air base in Latakia province, Syria. Russia on Thursday, Sept. 17, strongly urged the United States and its allies to engage the Syrian government as a "partner" in the fight against the Islamic State group, and offered to share any information about its military supplies to Damascus with Washington. (GeoNorth, AllSource Analysis, Airbus via AP) (The Associated Press)

A spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry says Moscow is happy to talk to Washington about its military presence in Syria.

The West has raised concern over signs of an ongoing Russian military buildup in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, which Washington says signals Moscow's intention to set up a forward air base there.

Russia has been angry over anonymous reports coming out from Washington saying that Russia has delivered about a half dozen battle tanks there.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that Russia is ready to address "any concerns" that the United States might have. She said that should be done between Russian military experts and their American counterparts, and not in the media.