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Lavrov urges Tillerson to prevent new strikes against governemnt forces in Syria

"Sergey Lavrov strongly disagreed with the US strikes against pro-government forces, calling for specific measures to prevent similar incidents in the future."

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held talks over the phone with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Russia’s top diplomat urged his US counterpart to take measures to prevent strikes against government troops in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Saturday.

"The interlocutors exchanged their assessments of the situation in Syria and reiterated their commitment to strengthening cooperation aimed at ending the conflict in that country," the ministry said in a statement. "Sergey Lavrov strongly disagreed with the US strikes against pro-government forces, calling for specific measures to prevent similar incidents in the future."

On Tuesday, the headquarters of Operation Inherent Resolve, which is conducted in Iraq and Syria by a group of countries led by the United States, said that the coalition’s air force had carried out a strike against the units of Syria’s pro-government forces. The coalition argued that these units had entered a "deconfliction zone" posing a threat to its military base in al-Tanf where a camp for training armed opposition members is located.

The Russian Foreign Minister said in response to these assertions that these deconfliction zones had been declared by the coalition unilaterally, without the consent of Damascus. Unlike the de-escalation zones established in accordance with the agreements reached by the participants in the Astana talks in May, they are not legitimate, Lavrov noted.