DOHA, December 7. /TASS/. The goal of distancing Syrian opposition in Idlib from the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (banned in Russia) remains relevant, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference as he wrapped his visit to Qatar.
"About the Idlib de-escalation zone. We talked about the fact that there are commitments developed within the Astana format in this regard - to prevent the strengthening of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and to distance, so to speak, the non-terrorist opposition from this group," he said. "This was mentioned today, and the task remains relevant.".
Countries shouldn’t use terrorists to achieve their goals
Countries shouldn’t rely on terrorists for achieving their goals, in contrast to what is now happening in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the Doha Forum.
"We are absolutely convinced that it is totally unacceptable to use terrorists to achieve geopolitical goals, as it is being done now," he said.
Lavrov said he felt "very sorry for the Syrian people, who have become the object of yet another geopolitical experiment."
"If we could help the Syrian state in 2015 to preserve its integrity, if we could organize processes with our colleagues from Iran, Turkey, who are part of it, this in itself was a very useful process," the minister said. "Nothing goes smoothly in global diplomacy, but the events we are seeing now are aimed at undermining everything we have done in this region."
According to the minister, what’s on the line is not that "this is bad for the image of the Russian Federation."
"We are just very concerned about the Syrian people. We do not want them to suffer the same fate as the Iraqi people, and other peoples whose peace has been disturbed," he said.