All news

Violent Islamic groups impede settlement of Syrian crisis

Islamic groups seeking their goals with violence are impeding the crisis settlement in Syria

MOSCOW, April 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Islamic groups seeking their goals with violence are impeding the crisis settlement in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Rossiya 24 channel on Friday.

“There were secular regimes in many Arab countries before the Arab spring, and they are being replaced with Islamic parties now,” the minister said. “Yet I think there is nothing to fear. It is a different matter that Islamic groups are trying to use Islam for the achievement of their goals with violence and similar methods.”

“That is impeding the settlement of the Syrian crisis,” he said. “The truce has not become full largely because armed opposition groups organize provocations, explosions, terror acts, attacks on governmental forces and governmental and administrative buildings for thwarting the Annan plan. They are trying to cause fair anger of the international community and incite external interference.”

“All must be working honestly. For a clear reason, we mostly interact with the government, persuading it to follow its obligations under the Annan plan, and with the opposition, although other states have a much bigger influence on it and we expect them to show a responsible attitude to their commitments under the UN Security Council resolution,” Lavrov said.

“Sanctions are not Russia’s choice,” he said. Russia supports sanctions sometimes when all members of the UN Security Council decide that certain ways of influence envisaged by the UN Charter are necessary for a country to understand the international will and to change its conduct, he said.