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Conflict in Syria

Lawmaker: West should renounce geopolitical ambitions in Syria to fight against terrorism

It's time to understand that the main threats in the MidEast are not authoritarian regimes but civil wars and terrorism, the road to which is paved by West’s good intentions, a Russian lawmaker says

© AP Photo/Hatem Moussa

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Ouster of Assad cannot be solution to Syrian crisis — French Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. Washington and Brussels should renounce their striving to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad at any price for the sake of joint fight against terrorism, Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

"Members of the anti-Syrian coalition should renounce their exorbitant geopolitical ambitions, hear the voice of reason and turn on their survival instinct," Kosachev said. "It is time to understand that the main threats in this region [Middle East] are not authoritarian regimes but civil wars and terrorism, the road to which is paved by West’s good intentions," he noted. He added that "the price of not understanding this is increasing first of all for Europe every day, with every person killed, with every refugee."

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While the government of Bashar Assad is fighting against opposition and terrorists, the United States and its allies are fighting against Assad and terrorists, Kosachev said. Russia, though, "is not fighting against the regime or the opposition in Syria. On the contrary, it is trying to bring opponents to the negotiations table to increase Syria’s resistance to radical Islam, in particular to the Islamic State group," the lawmaker noted.

Moscow and Damascus consider it possible to fight against terrorism together with others despite political disagreements, he stressed. "Washington and Brussels’ response is no, it is impossible. Cooperation can only occur in case of equal approaches on all matters and ‘on our conditions’. Those who do not agree are either bombed or isolated," Kosachev said. Thus, the West puts its intentions to overthrow Assad at any price above the global threat number one — terrorism, he concluded.

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Syria Fight against terrorism Bashar Assad

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