MOSCOW, September 7 (Itar-Tass) — Russian President Vladimir Putin named the Western policy towards Syria as short-sighted and warned that it is fraught with heavy consequences, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily reported. He noted that Russia does not intend to revise its position over the Syrian crisis, and urged other countries to stop weapon supplies in the conflict zone.
“We realize perfectly that some changes are needed there, but this does not mean at all that the changes should be bloody,” the Russian leader explained in an interview with the television channel Russia Today on Thursday.
Speaking on Russia’s policy towards Syria, the president noted that Russia does not want “to plunge in intra-Islamic conflicts and participate in the settlement of scores between Sunni Muslims, Shiites and Alawites.” “Our position is dictated only by one thing that is the striving to create a favourable situation for the positive development of the situation for many years to come,” Putin indicated.
The president sees the main reason for the ongoing escalation of violence in the unwillingness of the opposition to fulfil the decisions of the Geneva conference and in the fact that many participants in those negotiations actually refused to support them later. He named two main conditions for settlement: stop to deliver weapons to the conflict zone and not to impose unacceptable decisions on any party to the conflict.
Putin emphasized that Western countries pursue a dangerous and short-sighted policy, seeking to use Al Qaeda militants and other radical Islamist groups to attain their goals in Syria. “It just should not be forgotten that then these people will deal a blow on their patrons,” he warned and recalled that Russian current partners supported the rebellious movement in Afghanistan and created Al Qaeda, which dealt a blow on the United States then.
Most apparently, not only Russia, but also some regional countries do not support the approach of the West and its Arab allies to the Syrian problem, the newspaper noted. Despite the pressure from the US, Iraq refused to block the air corridor, along which, according to the US authorities, Bashar Assad’s rule receives weapons and military outfits from Iran. On Thursday, press secretary of the Iraqi prime minister Ali Mousavi stated that the US did not produce any evidence over the use of the air corridor for the trafficking of military cargoes, as this is so, there is no reason to close this air corridor.