Russian-Syrian Military –Technical Cooperation promotes ME stability: Lavrov
MOSCOW, BERLIN,(ST)_ Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has renewed his country ‘s stand in rejection of foreign interference in Syria, stressing that Russia is making its utmost efforts to halt violence and to resort to dialogue through which the Syrians should reach an agreement by themselves on the structure and standards of the political future of their country.
“Military-technical cooperation between Russia and Syria contributes to promoting stability in the Middle East, ” Lavrov said , adding” The point of providing technical supply to the Russian naval fleet in Tartous operates naturally, ” Lavrov told Russia’s Argumenty & Fakty Independent newspaper on Wednesday.
He denied any possibility to drag Russia to engage in “armed conflict in Syria,” pointing to the importance of implementing Geneva statement to resolve the crisis in Syria, for which Russia is working closely with the Syrian government and all parties concerned.
He underlined the role played by external parties who have influence on the “Syrian opposition” to implement their role agreed upon in Geneva statement.
” Continued violence in Syria would aggravate and complicate the situation, ” Lavrov stated.
He reiterated that there are a lot of foreign extremists and mercenaries and al-Qaeda linked terrorists in the ranks of the armed opposition and expressed concern over the transmission of the “conflict” to neighboring countries.
“Thousands of Russians are living in Syria in addition to a large number of other Russians who were living in Syria before the start of the crisis. However, many of them were forced to return to Russia,” Lavrov explained, pointing out that Russia is monitoring the situation closely and will notify any on change affecting the safety of Russian citizens .
On his part, Russian first Deputy Foreign Minister, Andrei Denisov, said “The deployment of Patriot missiles on the border between Turkey and Syria creates problems rather than solving them and implies “hidden threats,”
“From the technical point of view and in terms of maintenance,” the Patriot system is a “complex system,” whose personnel “undergoes long training and can boast high professional skills,” he noted after the opening of a two-day international congress on European security and defense known as the Berlin Security Conference.
“It is a serious weapon and it must be targeted against serious challenges. That is why we have such questions as what kind of challenges it is aimed at and who threatens who and from where?”
” The deployment of patriot missiles along the border with Syria may be connected to plans unknown for Moscow in order to establish “no-fly zones” , the Russian official said, adding that “If the objective behind the deployment of missiles is to take temporary measures towards Syria, such procedures can be implemented only by a UN Security Council resolution”.
He expressed belief that the decision “to deploy missiles” is creating more problems than it might solve. This is why Moscow showed restrained attitude towards this idea”, he indicated.
Tomader Fateh