Fighting Terrorism in the Region Needs Coordination with Syria – Zasypkin

BEIRUT, (ST)-The Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin has stressed that fighting terrorism, ridding the region of terrorists, particularly in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon and putting an end to the spread of terrorism necessitates cooperation among all concerned countries and most importantly coordination with Syria.

 In a statement to the Lebanese “As-Safir” newspaper published on Monday, Zasypkin talked about the Moscow consultative meeting aiming to reach a political settlement in Syria. He said “Russia doesn’t look at this meeting as a kind of official negotiations on a final solution to the crisis in Syria. It believes that the meeting is a means for exchanging points of view between the Syrian government and opposition parties.”   

The Russian ambassador added that Moscow is keen to witness objective and fruitful dialogue, pointing out that the consultative meeting will pave the way for other meetings within the framework of the political process which started in Geneva.

Zasypkin affirmed that Russia aimed to achieve tangible results aiming to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people and to attain peace in Syria. He clarified that achieving these goals needs more time and efforts by all concerned parties and necessitates benefiting from the available opportunity for holding dialogue in Moscow.

“Russia seeks unifying the ranks of the national people to save Syria, stop the terrorist attacks and halt terrorism spread in the region,” he said.

On the measures that have been taken by the Lebanese authorities to curb the flow of terrorists into the Lebanese areas, the Russian diplomat said Moscow supported these measures and highly appreciated the stances of the government, the army and the security devices in this regard.

“Russia also hails the dialogue being held between the Lebanese parties like Hezbollah and the Future Movement “which enhances the Lebanese social cohesion”, Sasypkin added.       

 He pointed out that the Lebanese political system could be immunized through the election of a new president.

Hamda Mustafa