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Kremlin stresses liquidation of Assad regime to make region plunge into chaos

The kremlen stresses calls for overthrowing authorities in other countries can hardly be welcomed in Moscow

© Sergei Bobylev/TASS

ST. PETERSBURG, June 17. /TASS/. Liquidating the regime of President Bashar Assad in Syria can make the region plunge into chaos and will not help in the fight against terrorism, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

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"In any case, calls for overthrowing authorities in other countries can hardly be welcomed in Moscow. Moreover, liquidating a regime will hardly facilitate successful progress in the fight against terrorism. It can make the region plunge in total chaos," Peskov said.

The spokesman stressed that the Kremlin "knows nothing" about the internal memorandum that by a group of US State Department diplomats that urges the Obama Administration to start delivering air strikes against the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. "There are such general media reports. That’s why we cannot say anything about it, of course. We do not have any reliable information on this so far," Peskov noted.

Commenting on Washington’s claims that Russian aviation allegedly delivers air strikes at the positions of the Syrian opposition supported by US military, the Kremlin spokesman said "this question should be addressed to the Defense Ministry." He added that the operation of Russian Aerospace Defense forces continues in Syria. "A very considerable problem is that the so-called moderate opposition and Al-Nusra Front (terrorist organization banned in Russia) continue to mix at certain places and ‘merge’ - this is not a secret to anyone. This considerably complicates the anti-terrorist situation," he concluded.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that "more than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war."

The New York Times confirmed the information saying that "dozens of State Department officials this week protested against US policy in Syria, signing an internal document that calls for targeted military strikes against the Damascus government and urging regime change as the only way to defeat Islamic State." "The ‘dissent channel cable’ was signed by 51 State Department officers involved with advising on Syria policy in various capacities, according to an official familiar with the document," NYT added.

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