US commander 'discredited Trump', says Russian army spokesman

Russian military spokesman trolls US General in charge of Middle East over hesitance to engage with Russia

Spokesman for the Russian Defence Ministry, Major-General Igor Konashenkov speaks during a news conference in Moscow (REUTERS)

If Gavin Williamson was head of the Russian army, the message might be simple: “Shut up and go away.”

As it was, it was left to official spokesman Igor Konashenkov to issue a similar rebuke of US General Joseph Votel, America’s top military commander in the Middle East.

The US general’s interview with US TV channel ABC, in which he expressed reservations about engaging with Russia in Syria, had “discredited” US President Donald Trump, according to Mr Konashenko.

It had also undermined the legal basis of the US presence in the country: “If the current US Middle East Command does not see possibility of working together with Russia, perhaps the best thing… would be to hasten the withdrawal of US troops from Syria.”

According to the Russian military spokesman, US forces could remain in Syria only if they were willing to help resolve the issue of refugees. Earlier, US General Votel had indicated he would recommend against such a joint operation.

"I would want to make sure that this isn't something that we stepped into lightly," he told ABC. “That would be a pretty big step at this point.”

The issue of US and Russia jointly working on the return of refugees to Syria was discussed during the recent presidential summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

According to numerous sources, the Russian side floated proposals of joint operations on humanitarian relief.

Three days after Helsinki, President Trump tweeted that the meeting had been “a great success, except with the real enemy of the people, the Fake News Media.” He confirmed the two sides had discussed a wide of topics including “terrorism, security for Israel, nuclear ... proliferation, cyber attacks, trade, Ukraine, Middle East peace, North Korea and more.”

But General Votel has said that the Pentagon had received no “specific direction” following the Trump-Putin summit. This raised questions as to what, if anything, was actually agreed on Syria in Helsinki.