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Lavrov draws Kerry's attention to reports Jebhat al-Nusra receives weapons from US

The Russian top diplomat stresses in phone talks with his US counterpart that a number of anti-government units, which Washington calls ‘moderate’, continued military operation against the Syrian army

MOSCOW, September 28 /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry by telephone on Wednesday the Jebhat al-Nusra’s field commanders had confirmed the receipt of weapons from the United States.

"Lavrov called Kerry’s attention to the media revelations of Jebhat al-Nusra’s field commanders about external support, including the receipt of U.S. weapons, as well as the remarks of Syrian opposition leader Riyad Hijab, the head of the West-backed group of Syrian opposition figureheads, who reside abroad, that the above-mentioned organization was not terrorist," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"Once again, Lavrov drew attention to the fact that a number of anti-government units, which Washington calls ‘moderate’, had not only refused to stick to the September 9 Russian-U.S. agreement for strengthening the ceasefire and providing humanitarian access but was instead merging with Jebhat al-Nusra and continued military operations against the Syrian army side by side with those Al-Quaeda units," the ministry said.

The top diplomats have also "discussed possibilities of influencing the situation in Aleppo so as to normalize it by means of getting back to the basic principles of Russian-U.S. agreements on the Syria crisis settlement," the Russian ministry said.

The both sides expressed profound concern for the situation in the city, the foreign ministry said.