Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Light of the Alawites...
to send troops, as Washington frets over an alleged Russian military buildup in the war-torn country.
"If there is any request then it would naturally be discussed and evaluated through bilateral contacts and dialogue," Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
"But it is difficult to talk about this hypothetically."
The United States says that Russia -- one of Assad's last remaining allies -- has covertly deployed troops, artillery units and tanks to Syria.
Moscow says it is sending arms to Syria under existing contracts but denies bolstering its forces in the country.
Putin has provided vital support to Assad throughout a popular uprising against his regime and as the conflict has metastasised into a brutal civil war that has killed 240,000 people and displaced four million.
US officials have expressed fears Russia may strike Western-backed rebel groups battling Assad and ultimately risk a confrontation with forces fighting the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Moscow has been pushing for a broader coalition of forces to take on ISIL, but key Western and regional players have ruled out fighting alongside Assad.