Russia: International fighters involved in terrorist activities on Syria should be repatriated to their home countries

MOSCOW, (ST)_Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Oleg Syromolotov, has called on his country’s Western allies not to fall into the same trap twice and to stop dividing terrorists into ‘bad’ and ‘good’.

 

In an interview Russian “Interfax” agency on Thursday, Syromolotov said: “individual terrorist cells continue to operate, posing a serious threat. The largest of them is the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, the precursor of which is Jabhat al-Nusra [both organizations are banned in Russia]. 

 

According to various estimates, it has from 10,000 to 15,000 members, including natives of Central Asia and the North Caucasus. It is the dominant force in the Idlib de-escalation area, it stages sorties against government forces of Syria and its allies, including Russia, and it continues to terrorize the local population, enforcing Sharia law.

 

“We are concerned that sometimes we see attempts to absolve Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and portray it as some kind of a political organization. We view as unacceptable such overtures to terrorists who have been designated as such by the UN Security Council. We would like to call on our Western allies not to fall into the same trap twice and to stop dividing terrorists into ‘bad’ and ‘good’,” Syromolotov said. 

 

He added that ISIS terrorist organization has ceased to exist as a unified territorial entity, but has transformed itself into a far-flung covert terrorist network. Its leaders have concentrated the main forces on restoring the combat potential of its formations and have switched to guerrilla warfare methods against state administration employees and the local population. However, ISIS is currently most active in the east of Syria.

 

“The Hurras al-Din terrorist organization [banned in Russia], which claims to be the official branch of Al Qaeda in Syria, continues to stage sorties. According to various estimates, it is has from 3,500 to 5,000 jihadists, half of whom belong to so-called foreign terrorist militants from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, and Tunisia,” Syromolotov clarified. 

 

HE went on to say: “We call for inescapable punishment for terrorist crimes and urge the entire global community to pool efforts to this end. Consistent with international obligations, international fighters involved in terrorist activities on the territory of Syria, Iraq, or any other state should be repatriated to their home countries, where they should be held responsible in proportion to the severity of their crimes or stand trial at the place where the crime was committed in keeping with the national laws of the relevant state.

 

He concluded by saying: “For our part, we continue to offer the necessary assistance to the Syrian authorities in countering terrorists.”

Basma Qaddour