Russia will continue arms supplies to Syria — parliament speaker

ULAN BATOR, September 16. /TASS/. Moscow will continue supplying weapons to Syria in accordance with the international law, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Sergey Naryshkin has said.

"Russia has carried out and is still carrying out weapons supplies to the government army [of Syria]. Russia never hid it. We have been doing it and we will continue doing it in accordance with the norms of international law," Naryshkin told the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (PA OSCE) in Mongolia’s Ulan Bator.

"We urge the whole international community to unite in this struggle against the Islamic State terrorism and of course, to use these forces in this fight, first of all the government army of Syria," he stressed.

The IS caliphate would have already felt more comfortable on the Mediterranean Sea coast and moved further if the Syrian army had not been an efficient force, Naryshkin said.

Last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would continue delivering military equipment to Syria for combating terrorist groups. "We’ll continue to supply this equipment to the Syrian state in order to ensure its due defence capability in countering the terrorist threat," Lavrov said.

Russia has repeatedly called in the international coalition to cooperate with the Syrian authorities under the auspices of the United Nations to fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization. Russian President Vladimir Putin said earlier that Russia is ready to provide assistance in forming a coalition to fight against IS that will include the countries of the region. In September, Putin discussed with US President Barack Obama in a telephone conversation establishing the international anti-terrorist coalition.