VLADIVOSTOK, September 12. /TASS/. Political channels of dialogue with the United States on Syria should help in finding common ground on settlement in the Arab republic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
"I’m satisfied by the fact that we have a very professional channel of communication with the United States between our militaries on problems of the Syrian crisis," Lavrov said during the forum of young diplomats from the Asia-Pacific region, held as part of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF). "Yes, we were invited by Syria’s legitimate government, and the US came without invitation. But this is the reality on the ground. We are pragmatic, not dogmatic."
"I assume that the contacts on Syria that we still keep via political channels will help us find mutually acceptable approaches, acceptable first of all from the point of view of the Syrians themselves," he added.
He urged Western nations to team up against the threat of terrorism of extremism instead of using the situation to achieve timeserving goals.
"Right now we are facing the threats of terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, and I hope that the understanding of the need to jointly fight this evil will prevail, instead of playing against each other in this or that situation - like in Syria, for example - and to use the threat of extremism to achieve timeserving goals," Russia’s top diplomat said.
"After Iraq was occupied under a trumped-up pretext, the Islamic State [terrorist organization, outlawed in Russia] emerged there. After Syria was attacked by extremists, supported by regional countries and Western nations, Jabhat al-Nusra [terrorist group, outlawed in Russia], one of the most efficient and evil terrorist groups, came into existence," he said. "Expectations that one may use those people to achieve goals today and control them tomorrow, are nothing but illusion, this will never happen.".