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No legal restrictions apply to Russia-Syria military-technical cooperation — Kremlin

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told the closing session of the 26th summit of the League of Arab States that Russia continued to arm the Syrian regime

MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. There are no restrictions on military-technical cooperation between Russia and Syria, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has told the media.

"Moscow has said more than once that there are no embargoes on military-technical cooperation [with Syria]. There have been none and there aren’t any at the moment," Peskov said. "Respectively, in this particular case one can hardly mention any legal restrictions."

Peskov avoided commenting on critical remarks by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister about Russia’s military supplies to Damascus.

"The commentary was made by the foreign minister (of Saudi Arabia), so I believe that it would be appropriate for our Foreign Ministry to offer an opinion," Peskov said.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told the closing session of the 26th summit of the League of Arab States on March 29 that Russia continued to arm the Syrian regime which, he claimed, had lost legitimacy and was killing its own people.

"Sometimes we hear calls for ending military-technical cooperation with Syria," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the third ministerial round of the strategic dialogue between Russia and the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

"I would like to recall that from the very outset it was aimed at enhancing Syria’s defense in the face of an external threat, and not at supporting Bashar Assad or whoever. That cooperation does not run counter to any international commitments," Lavrov said.