Russian FM says US is not fighting Al-Nusra in Syria

MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow does not see any signs that the US is fighting the Al-Nusra terrorist group in Syria.

Moscow “doesn’t see any facts that the US is seriously battling Al-Nusra [now known as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham],” Lavrov said in an interview to Channel One Russia on Sunday, according to the Mehr News.

He said that American fighter jets return to their air bases with unspent ammunition. The jets make a lot of flights but their efficiency is very low, about 15-20%. Washington even called on Moscow to cease bombing runs in Aleppo, because “there are also allegedly representatives of the “moderate opposition,” who are surrounded and have nowhere to go except to Al-Nusra,” he said.

These calls are suspicious, the minister said. According to Lavrov, Washington officials ask, “So don’t touch Al-Nusra, because it is not humane in relation to the normal guys, and we will fight Al-Nusra later.” But “this ‘later’ never comes. They promised to separate these normal guys from Al-Nusra back in February,” he added.

At the same time, Lavrov said that the US Secretary of State John Kerry denied any “hidden intention to preserve this terrorist organization and to bring it out from under the strikes in order to make it the main force to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad at some point.” “Under the pressure of such conversations the Americans declared that they killed one of the Nusra Front leaders,” he said claiming that it was “a separate, isolated case” that does not reflect the real US policy.

“After the administration of Ronald Reagan created al-Qaeda, and the administration of George W. Bush created Daesh we would not like the administration of Barack Obama to go down in history as the one which reinforced and ensured the success of another terrorist organization called Nusra Front,” the minister continued.

However, “Obama has repeatedly told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he stands for a political solution to the crisis,” Lavrov said.

M.Wassouf