MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. Washington’s willingness to support the Kurds in the fight against terrorists in Syria is a step forward in resolving the Syrian crisis, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya 24 TV channel on Wednesday.

"Diplomacy and politics are a matter of compromise," she said. "However, at some point one should take some principled steps, to make a fundamental choice. Otherwise, onward movement is impossible."

Zakharova recalled that Russia had repeatedly said that the full-fledged political settlement process required the involvement of all forces and groups in Syria who are not terrorists. "Ignoring such force as the Kurds is a dead-end road, a complete lack of understanding of this factor," she went on to say. "Or vice versa - the understanding and unwillingness to involve it in the political process."

"So I think that the United States, realizing that progress is only possible with the availability of the full array of relevant factors, has made an appropriate choice and began to move forward," Zakharova said.

US State Department spokesman John Kirby earlier said that Washington did not consider the People’s Defense Units a terrorist group and would continue to support them. The People’s Defense Units is the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and the Syrian wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party Turkey has been fighting against for nearly 30 years.