Moscow Calls upon Western States to Lift Coercive Economic Sanctions on Syria

MOSCOW – Russia called on western countries to end the coercive unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Syria and facilitate the return of displaced Syrians to their home, SANA reported.

Speaking at a meeting in Moscow today,  according to SANA, Chief of the National Centre for State Defense Control, Mikhail Mizintsev, reiterated the Russian Defense Ministry’s call upon western states to end sanctions imposed against Syria and send funds allocated to help displaced Syrians return to their country.

 Mizintsev highlighted the procedures taken by the Syrian government to facilitate the return of displaced Syrians abroad to their home, noting that such measures indicate the Syrian state’s keenness on achieving that objective.

For his part, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry’s spokesman Alexander Nogin said that the ministry will help Syria restore the national system of reaction to emergencies and train humanitarian demining specialists.

“There are plans for the training of Syria’s own humanitarian demining specialists in accordance with international standards and for briefing Syrian civilians on mine-related risks in the context of postwar reconstruction,” he added.

A spokesman for the federal medical-biological agency Dmitry Samovarov said that within the framework of measures to promote the return of displaced Syrians, the agency had formed a combined team of 35 medical specialists, adding that specialized vehicles equipped with advanced medical instruments for providing first aid and conducting medical examination – a command center, an intensive care van, an operating room, an X-ray diagnostic vehicle and labs – were dispatched to Syria.