Al-Moallem: We Trust Russia’s Leadership, Determination to Take Part in the Fight against Terrorism

DAMASCUS, (ST)-Russia’s participation in the fight against “ISIL” and “al-Nosra Front” terrorist organizations will turn the table on the parties which conspired against Syria and will prove that the United States and its anti-terror coalition have no clear strategy to fight “ISIL”, Deputy Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Walid al-Moallem has underlined.

 “We trust the leadership of the Russian Federation and its Determination to take part in the fight against terrorism,” al-Moallem told the “Russia Today” Cannel.

He stressed that the Syrian government is not against holding political dialogue in parallel with terrorism fighting.

“We don’t want to proceed in a dark tunnel…priority is to combating terrorism, but this doesn’t mean to abandon political dialogue, because we can’t implement any agreement or deal under terrorism escalation, al-Moallem clarified.

Syria’s neighbors haven’t implemented any UNSC resolution on fighting terrorism

The Syrian top diplomat said that Syria’s neighboring countries haven’t implemented any UNSC resolution relating to combating terrorism, stressing that “the flow of terrorists into Syria across the Jordanian and Turkish borders and the activities of funding and training the terrorists are still going on in full swing.”

“Moscow is working in accordance with the International Law and in coordination with Syria and that is something the United States doesn’t do,” al-Moallem said, pointing out that the US raids against “ISIL” and “al-Nosra Front” are ineffective and that the Syrian army is the only force that is confronting terrorist organizations in Syria.

Steadfast Syrian people support their army

The foreign minister added that “the Syrian army has been fighting terrorism on a wide front for years without having its determination weakened. Besides, the Syrian people are suffering economic siege yet they are still steadfast and supporting the army.”

“We welcome the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative when he called for establishing a wide front comprising many countries to combat terrorism in cooperation with the Syrian government,” al-Moallem said, welcoming every country that has true willingness to combat terrorism.

Replying a question on the latest visit of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura to Syria, al-Moallem said discussions dealt with replies to inquiries “we sent to Mistura about his initiative on forming four work teams of Syrian experts to exchange ideas in preparation for holding Geneva III conference.”

“We want to understand what the four work teams are going to do, what results we expect and how these results will reflect on future,” he clarified.

Hamda Mustafa