“Jabhat al-Nusra” is the Backbone of US-Backed Armed Groups Called “Moderate” by Washington”

DAMASCUS, (ST)- Deputy Premier, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Walid al-Moallem has stressed that the United States, France and Britain called for holding yesterday’s urgent Security Council session on Syria in order to support terrorist groups in the country.

Interviewed by the al-Mayadeen TV on Monday, al-Moallem said the Americans wanted at the Security Council meeting to accuse Russia of causing more deterioration in the Syrian situation, particularly after the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov succeeded in embarrassing them for their dishonesty in implementing the Russian-US brokered agreement on Syria. He added that the American wanted to lie and falsify facts about what the Syrian government is doing but they failed.

 The top Syria diplomat said the United States couldn’t dissociate “Jabhat al-Nusra” terrorist organization from the US-backed armed groups because this terror organization has been the backbone of these groups.

He pointed out that the West blames Russia in order to mislead the public opinion, because the West itself is the party which has financed trained and armed terrorists.

Al-Moallem affirmed that the US-led coalition’s aggression on one of the Syrian army positions in Deir Ezzor was intentional and coordinated with ISIS terror organization whose members attacked the position and captured it an hour after the coalition’s airstrikes. He pointed out that there is a link between this aggression and the American dishonesty in implementing its pledges.

“The Syrian Arab Army was the only party which was committed to the truce provided in the American-Russian agreement, whereas the groups, (almost twenty groups) which claim that they are “moderate”, have announced their rejection to abide by the agreement,” said al-Moallem, noting that the truce was violated 300 times causing civilian and military casualties.

Al-Moallem stressed that the United States along with other certain western and regional states have led the conspiracy on Syria and provided terrorists with arms and money and send them to Syria across Turkish borders.

“If the United States had a true will to find a solution to the crisis in Syria it would be able to do so,” al-Moallem said, clarifying that the U.S can force its allied countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to accept solution.

He said the UN Chief’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan De Mistura has been delaying invitation for holding the intra-Syrian dialogue in Geneva since last May and didn’t fix a date under several pretexts. According to al-Moallem, de Mistura did so because he hasn’t received a green light from the American side to hold a new round of talks.

The Syrian diplomat stressed that de Mistura doesn’t have the right to make conditions for resuming the talks, because “dialogue will be among the Syrians only and without reconditions.”

He described as “shameful” the statements made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Syria at the UN General Assembly, pointing out that ki-moon’s accusing of the Syrian government of using banned weapons without proof is not befitting his position.

Hamda Mustafa