Russian foreign minister: Syrian president Assad defending entire region against terrorism

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The risky undertakings of Western powers in the Middle East and North Africa play into the hands of terrorists, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday in an interview with UK Channel 4.

"Just like Al Qaeda was born in Afghanistan, ISIL/Daesh [outlawed in Russia] was born after the intervention in Iraq," Lavrov said. "And now that Libya was invaded in gross violation of the Security Council resolution, that Syria is where it is now, there is another beast which was born - Jabhat al-Nusra [outlawed in Russia], which changes names but which is another terrorist organization."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that President Bashar al-Assad isn’t just defending Syria; he is defending the entire region against terrorism.

In an interview given to Britain’s Channel 4 on Friday, Lavrov said that President al-Assad is defending Syria’s sovereignty and unity, and on a wider scale he is defending the entire region against terrorism.

"And we did not want the repetition of tragedies which happened during the last couple of decades through the adventures [of the West]," Lavrov added.

He reiterated that the Syrians alone will decide Syria’s future, stressing that the actions of ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists are obstructing the implementation of the de-escalation agreement in the southern area in Syria.

Lavrov asserted that Russia will not withdraw its forces from Syria until the end of 2018, and that such withdrawal would depend on developments on the ground.

The Russian Minister said the decision to expand the mandate of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) violates the chemical weapons convention, and that Russia is working to remedy this situation, but if this doesn’t happen he said the OPCW’s days are numbered.

He said that Russia had trusted the OPCW until recently, but the Organization was subjected to serious manipulation two days ago.




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