MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Increased terrorist activities in Syria stem from the United States’ refusal to coordinate its military actions with Russia, a Russian lawmaker said on Monday.
"The situation in Syria is impacted by dozens of various factors and it is difficult to single out the most essential one. Nevertheless, I would say that increased terrorist activities stem, first of all, from the United States’ categorical refusal to coordinate its military actions in Syria with Russia," Frants Klintsevich, the first deputy chairman of the defense and security committee of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house, told journalists.
"I think this is the key reason why Raqqa has not yet been liberated," he said.
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Earlier in the day, a series of terror attacks rocked Syria’s Mediterranean cities of Jableh and Tartous. According to the latest updates, the bomb blasts killed 78 people. The police however say the death toll exceeds one hundred. Responsibility for these attacks was claimed by the pro-Turkish radical group Ahrar Ash-Sham and the terrorist organization Islamic State (outlawed in Russia).
According to Klintsevich, these terrorist attacks in Jableh and Tartous "clearly demonstrate that Islamic State is seeking to lift up its head again."
Apart from that, he said that the "acute crisis in relations between the European Union and Turkey and the latter’s threat to sever all relations with Europe" should not be ignored. "In other words, any rift in the anti-terrorism front is playing into the hands of terrorists," the Russian lawmaker said.