MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. The Russian Foreign Ministry notes the reports of explosive coronavirus infection spread among US servicemen in Syria, Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said Thursday.
"We receive reports of explosive coronavirus infection spread among the US servicemen [in Syria] and of these facts being kept mum on," she said.
The spokeswoman underscored that the US forces stay in Syria illegally.
"This means that Washington bears full responsibility for the civilian population and provision for their humanitarian needs on territories under its control east of the Euphrates and in the south near Al-Tanf, where the notorious Rukban camp for the internally displaced people is located," the diplomat said.
Besides, the diplomat noted reports of US aid to the Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria.
"The aid is truly strange. According to reports, the Americans have handed over to the Kurds not only medical materials for disinfection, but also means of prison riots suppression, which, you would agree, hardly qualify as humanitarian aid," she noted.
The spokeswoman expressed concern that spread of the coronavirus in northeastern Syria, where prisons and refugee camps are located, which are effectively inaccessible, might turn into a "true catastrophe, making already difficult living conditions there unbearable."
Turkey’s efforts to drive militants from M4 highway in Syria
Moscow welcomes Ankara’s efforts to drive militants away from the M4 highway in Syria’s Idlib province and expects that moderate militants will be separated from terrorists, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman stated.
According to her, Russian and Turkish troops are working to create a security corridor along the M4 highway in Idlib based on the March 5 protocol and continue patrolling the area but radicals are hindering these efforts.
"In this regard, we welcome Ankara’s steps to drive militants away from the M4 highway and expect that the so-called moderate militants will finally be separated from terrorists and terrorists will be eliminated," Zakharova emphasized.
The Russian diplomat also pointed that the foreign ministers of the Astana process guarantors (Russia, Turkey and Iran) had held a video conference on Wednesday. They thoroughly discussed the situation on the ground in Syria and the need to provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people and to advance the political process, Zakharova noted.