Lavrov: The war in Syria is becoming very crowded
Syria “has become very crowded on the land and in the air.”, stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, as reported by RIA Novosti.
“Indeed, it’s very crowded on the ground and in the air. There are many participants in the fighting: there are the Syrian armed forces and the forces that are called pro-government forces, including Hezbollah, and the forces supported by the Iranians. There are also armed opposition and terrorists in the same place. And there are the Turkish military and the special forces of a number of Western countries and neighboring countries. There are aircraft of the Russian Federation Air Force and the coalition headed by the United States,” Lavrov said, commenting on the hostilities in the territory of the UAR.
According to him, the implementation of initiatives related to the de-escalation zones in Syria will allow the creation of a boundary between the terrorists and those endeavoring to cease the hostilities.
“And if the initiatives that are being implemented in the de-escalation zones are realized, then we will have, for the first time in the Syrian crisis, a situation where there will be a demarcation between those endeavoring to cease the hostilities and the terrorists, as well as those who, like the terrorists, do not want to join the ceasefire,” said Lavrov.
According Lavrov, if all the participants in the hostilities are “honest” and “guided by the goal of fighting terrorism, we have every reason to prevent the situation from descending into chaos and unforeseen incidents.”
The Russian Foreign Minister also said that Russia and France have an understanding that the crisis in Syria should be resolved through dialogue along with an uncompromising struggle against the terrorists.
“We have a common understanding that it is necessary to solve this crisis exclusively through an inclusive national dialogue, with the active support of the world community, as envisaged by the decisions of the UN Security Council, with an absolutely uncompromising struggle against the terrorist structures of ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other organizations that are recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council,” said Lavrov.