MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Syria plans to continue cooperation with Russia in struggle with terrorism and it hopes to weed the danger of terrorism out on its land, the Syrian Ambassador in Moscow, Riyad Haddad told Rossiya’24 news channel on Thursday.
"We’ll continue cooperation with our Russian friends in order to defeat terrorism and extremism," he said.
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Along with it, he voiced doubts over whether or not struggle with terrorism was a goal of the international coalition set up by the U.S.
"We’ve heard many a time the U.S. assurances in this respect and yet we don’t see any result," he said. "Americans themselves don’t have an understanding of what they want. They don’t see a clear solution to the conflict in Syria."
Haddad said it was important to destroy all the terrorist groupings operating in Syria if someone wanted to reach peace and tranquility in Syria.
"President Assad said winning over terrorism is our objective and we shouldn’t stop at the current achievements but should continue our war versus terrorism and extremism," Haddad said.
"We see the terrorist organizations are still present on the Syrian soil and we can’t leave the fact just like that," he said. "We must eliminate them."
Russia's involvement
The diplomat went on to say that involvement of Russia’s Aerospace Forces in the antiterrorism fight in Syria a year ago was very timely.
"Russia’s participation was very timely, it was very important and effective," the diplomat said.
He said Russia is playing a key role in the issue of counteraction to the terrorist threat.
"We will certainly be trying to keep cooperating with Russian friends to overcome extremism," Haddad underscored.
Russia’s operation against the terrorist organizations Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (now called Jabhat Fath al-Sham) in Syria started September 30, 2015 on a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad. With support from Russia’s aircraft, the Syrian government forces recaptured about 400 inhabited localities.
On March 14, 2016 Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to withdraw the main part of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ air group from Syria. Two Russian military facilities - at the Hmeymim airfield and in Tartus keep operating on Syrian territory.