MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Moscow is disappointed by attempts to justify terrorists’ offensive near Damascus and Hama in Syria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry Official Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters, stressing that this "propaganda game" is inadmissible.
The Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) and their cohorts earlier carried out a raid in the north of the Hama province, posing a direct threat to the province’s administrative center and also the town of Muhada where Christians live, and this attack was thwarted, the diplomat said.
"The consequences of the large-scale bloody provocation are being cleared out now, and Syrian forces are returning to their positions," Zakharova noted.
"We detected that the terrorists’ activities near Damascus and Hama had been well synchronized and very thoroughly worked out," she added. "The al-Nusra radicals managed to attract militants from groups that had joined the ceasefire in their offensives."
Moscow "is disappointed by the assessments of these events by some opposition politicians and certainly Western and regional mass media outlets that try to justify the terrorists," Zakharova emphasized. "They depicted this as a success for the Free Syrian Army in the fight against the regime."
"This propaganda game is inadmissible," she stressed. "Everyone should understand that any activities involving al-Nusra, the Islamic State (terror groups, outlawed in Russia) and other branches of Al-Qaeda should be condemned decisively and in absolute terms."
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Readiness for compromise
The parties at talks on Syria in Geneva should show their readiness for compromise solutions, she went on.
"Moscow hopes that the Syrian sides will show readiness to look for compromise solutions as regards to all four ‘baskets’ (core issues of debate) with the goal of achieving peace on the Syrian soil," Zakharova said.
The diplomat noted that the current military and political situation in Syria remains tense. "The Syrian army continues anti-terrorist operation in eastern Damascus launched in response to the militants’ attempt to carry out an offensive on the city’s center on March 19-22," she said.
Earlier this month, UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura unveiled a plan to the Syrian sides, which includes "four baskets": constitution, governance, elections and war on terror.