Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov has warned that Daesh terrorists are leaving the northern
Iraqi city of Mosul in droves and heading to neighboring Syria, voicing
Moscow’s eagerness to work with the Iraqi government to stop the exodus.
“The international anti-Daesh coalition has launched the operation to liberate Mosul.We
are interested in working with our Iraqi colleagues to take measures to
prevent terrorists moving from Mosul to Syria with their heavy arms,
which of course will seriously worsen the situation in the Syrian
republic,” Lavrov said at a joint press conference with his Iranian and
Syrian counterparts Mohammad Javad Zarif and Walid al-Muallem
respectively in Moscow on Friday.
He added, “We think
that it is important not to let this happen. We will discuss it with
the US and other members of the coalition. We cannot let the terrorists
leave Mosul into Syria with the aim to re-directing their activity.” Last
week, the Russian Defense Ministry asked the US-led military coalition
not to "drive terrorists" from Iraq to Syria during the offensive to
liberate Mosul. Iraq’s Joint Operations Command (JOC) announced on
Thursday that a total of 772 Daesh terrorists have been killed and 23
others arrested in the operation so far. The Syrian foreign
minister, for his part, stated that the so-called US-led military
coalition plans to salvage Daesh, and move the terrorists from Mosul to
al-Raqqah, which serves as their stronghold in Syria.
“Lavrov
pointed out that Mosul and the liberation operation around the city
suffered from the intervention of the US-led coalition and from the US
guidance. This coalition has never fought Daesh. On the contrary, it is
destroying the infrastructure of the Syrian economy, and recently
destroyed a huge number of bridges on the Euphrates River. It is them
who do not want to destroy Daesh. They want to move Daesh from Mosul
into Raqqah. I was glad to hear that we will continue our cooperation to
prevent this (from happening),” Muallem said.
Lavrov
then pointed out that Moscow and Tehran support “the readiness of the
Syrian government to continue and even expand cooperation with the UN in
resolving the humanitarian issues.” The top Russian diplomat,
however, made it clear that “UN representatives should be impartial, not
respond to provocations, as an international organization should be.” Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) welcomes his Syrian counterpart
Walid al-Muallem during their meeting in Moscow, Russia, on October 28,
2016. (Photo by AP)Muallem also questioned the
ongoing US-led airstrikes against purported Daesh positions in Syria,
stressing that the aerial attacks have failed to dislodge the
terrorists. The Syrian foreign minister further dismissed
allegations of contacts between the US-led coalition and Syrian
government, saying, “All these conversations might prove as useful for
the US administration before the US presidential vote. But we do not
believe this and there are no contacts between us anyway.” The
foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which started in March 2011, has
claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate
by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.
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