Russia is expanding a second Syrian air base, our news desk reports:
Russia is expanding an air base in Homs Province in western Syria to accommodate its fighter jets, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.
The monitoring group said on December 3 that the Russians were adding fortifications and developing runways at the Shayrat air base, about 40 kilometers southeast of Homs city, in a sign they intend to use it as their second air base in the country.
The work under way could signal Moscow's intention to step up air strikes in the country's central region where the Islamic State group is active, it said.
A U.S. official said the United States believes Russia had been moving equipment to the Shayrat base and some of the equipment is already operational.
Russia has been conducting air strikes in Syria since September 30, using the Syrian government's Basel al-Assad air base in the coastal province of Latakia. Su-24 bombers and helicopters take off daily from that base. (Reuters, AP)
Barring any major events, that concludes our live-blogging of Islamic State for Thursday, December 3. Check back here tomorrow for more of our ongoing coverage.
UK Participation in Syria Air Campaign Won't Be Gamechanger
Britain's participation in the anti-IS air campaign in Syria will be no gamechanger, experts have told AFP.
Some military analysts also warned that air strikes alone will not be enough to defeat IS.
"The answer is not dropping more bombs," said Hassan Hassan, a Syria expert at the Chatham House think tank, pointing to the risk of radicalizing residents of areas targeted by warplanes.
What is most needed is stepped-up support for more moderate Syrian opposition groups -- help with overall tactics and strategy rather than with money or weapons, according to Hassan.
Russia's Suspension Of Turkish Stream Leaves Miles Of Stranded, Useless Pipes
Reuters reports on one of the consequences of Russia's announcement earlier today that it is suspending talks with Turkey over the Turkish Stream pipeline project, amid the row over Turkey's downing of a Russian jet near the Syrian border.
Gas pipes worth $1.95 billion will be stranded on the shores of the Black Sea, Reuters says.
The pipes, which Russian energy giant Gazprom ordered from Japan and Germany, can only be used in the Black Sea.
Turkish Stream was a pipeline intended to pump Russian gas into southeast Europe via Turkey, bypassing Ukraine.
"Saudi Arabia's effort to unite Syrian rebels in Riyadh next week will be a big test of its regional ambitions after years of bickering between opposition groups and serious misgivings about the initiative among major powers with a stake in the war," Reuters reports.
The meeting next week "will be attended by around 65 members of the political and armed opposition, including around 15 representatives from armed groups," Reuters adds.
But the two most powerful armed groups -- IS and Al-Qaeda affiliate the Al-Nusra Front -- will not be there: IS has not been invited and Nusra is not expected to attend.
Iran has slammed the meeting as harmful to peace prospects in Syria, Western countries are alarmed at the role played by Islamists and Turkey is upset about the fact that Kurds will likely attend, so Saudi Arabia "may struggle" to achieve its goal, Reuters points out.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asks in a Facebook post what would happen to the IS group if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stood down.
Zakharova was responding to a comment by Britain's Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, who told Channel 4 News yesterday that the Syrian crisis could be solved if Russian President Putin "[picked] up the telephone to Assad and [told] him the game is over."
Zakharova wrote:
"So. Let's face it. If everything was just like our British colleagues advised, and after Assad goes the madness ends, where is IS going to go in that case? Or will someone also telephone them and tell them the game is over?
Here's a question, who's going to telephone IS?"
AFP's correspondent in Ankara has one more detail about the meeting in Belgrade today between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
AFP is now reporting that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart met in Belgrade today on the sidelines of the OSCE ministerial council.
A Turkish foreign ministry official confirmed the meeting to AFP, saying that "the meeting between the two foreign ministers has begun as scheduled."
Russia 'Reinforcing Military Base In Central Syria'
Russia is reinforcing a military airport in central Syria as a new base for its warplanes as government forces edge closer to Palmyra, according to a military source and an activist group, AFP reports.
The anonymous military source -- AFP does not say which country he or she is from -- said that the "preparation phase for the Shaayrat base is nearing its end. It is being prepared to become a Russian military base."
The base "will begin being used by Russian forces toward the end of the month."
Shaayrat is in Homs province in central Syria and is north of towns where Syrian government forces backed by Russian air strikes have been fighting IS.
According to Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Russia has been building new runways at Shaayrat, AFP reports.
Russia has operated out of the Hmeymim base in northern Latakia province since it began its air strikes in Syria on September 30.
Russian Media: Lavrov Met Turkish FM Cavusoglu -- But No Reporters Were Allowed
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has met with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in Belgrade today, some Russian media is reporting.
Notably, no report of any meeting has appeared in either RIA Novosti or TASS -- at least not yet.
But Government daily Rossiskaya Gazeta (RG) published a report -- really more of a "reporter's notebook" -- at 17:35 Moscow time (14:35 GMT) that the meeting between Lavrov and Cavusoglu had begun.
"On Thursday, Lavrov and Cavusoglu really did meet. It was just that the press were not allowed into the meeting. Even the handshake was photographed only by the ministers' personal operators," RG reported.
RG then noted that before the meeting with Cavusoglu, Lavrov had spent 45 minutes talking to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Journalists were allowed into that meeting, "but only for 10 seconds," RG added.
"During that time, Lavrov managed to ask Kerry, 'How are you feeling?' and Kerry managed to answer, 'Good, but a little tired.' "
Business daily Kommersant also notes that "Sergei Lavrov has established communication with Turkey."
"The meeting with Cavusoglu took place on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministers Council which met on Thursday in the capital of Serbia. Contrary to custom, reporters were not allowed even for the so-called protocol -- the handshake and the greetings at the very start of the meeting," Kommersant writes.
"The meeting was the first two way direct contact at such a high level since the incident with the Russian Su-24, downed on the Turkey-Syria border on November 24."