KUWAIT CITY, February 19. /ITAR-TASS/. The West’s claims that terrorists are fighting in Syria because the ruling regime holds on to power reveal “a simplified logic,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“It is wrong to say that terrorists are in Syria only because the regime does not want to give up power. This is a simplified logic our Western partners are pushing,” he said after talks with his Kuwaiti counterpart, Sheikh Muhammad al-Sabah on Wednesday, February 19.
“This is very dangerous. This is an attempt to put one’s political interests above the interests of the Syrian people in this case and above the interests of the peoples of the whole region,” the minister said.
Lavrov stressed that “Russia is worried by the constant spread of terrorism and its spilling over to neighbouring countries, including Iraq and Lebanon, where a terrorist act occurred today.”
“If we turn a blind eye to these things, the threat of proliferation will become absolutely real for many other countries in the region,” he warned. “We do not wish our friends anything like that and we want to fight terrorism together with them in accordance with the U.N.-approved principles.”
“Our most challenging task now is to ease the humanitarian situation in Syria. People are suffering, and we are working consistently with the government, the opposition and international agencies,” the minister said.
“Progress is made albeit not as quickly as we would like. Some settlements are unblocked, humanitarian aid is delivered there, and women, children and other civilians leave them. This experience has to be used in other parts of Syria, local ceasefire agreements have to be reached, and detained persons have to be exchanged. All this takes time and effort,” Lavrov said.
He stressed that “this is much more difficult than trying to create the impression that the situation cannot be settled by political methods and force has to be used again.”
“We are very much concerned about the fact that at a time when some say that Geneva II has failed, the oppositionists may get false signals and start having illusions that if they balks, all the blame will be shifted to the government and the international community will come to their rescue as it did for rebels in Libya. I do hope that no one wants the Libyan experiment to recur and everyone will show more responsibility than in Libya,” the minister said.