THE UNITED NATIONS, September 21. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has stressed the need to resume the practice of drawing up lists of terrorist organizations and stop excusing the enemies of peace in Syria.
"In spite of our appeals, the appeals that were written in the UN Security Council’s resolutions about the need to influence the armed opposition and relevant groups, few results have been achieved in this sphere," Lavrov said at Wednesday’s UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East held at the level of heads of delegations taking part in the 71st session on the UN General Assembly.
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- Agreements on Syria cannot be approved by UNSC until US agrees to publish them
- Kremlin sees little hope for restoring ceasefire in Syria
- Moscow says violations of ceasefire in Syria put Russian-US agreements at risk
"I have mentioned the list handed to us by U.S. partners with 150 organizations on it that were named as participants of the cessation of hostilities. However, over 20 groups out of them issued immediate and official statements after September 12, asserting they would not fulfil the relevant agreements," he said.
"The list includes Ahrar ash-Sham which we proposed to put on the list of terrorist organizations along with another terrorist structure - Jaysh al-Islam, when we were drawing up Resolution 2254," the Russian foreign minister went on to say. "Our partners said then it would not allow them to work effectively and as a gesture of goodwill we did not insist on it, narrowing the terrorist list to Jabhat al-Nusra and so-called Islamic State."
Besides, Lavrov said that after Russia and the U.S. announced on September 12 their deal on Syria was coming into effect, the Ahrar ash-Sham leadership said in an official statement it would not implement the agreements since those branded Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist organization while Ahrar ash-Sham did not view Jabhat al-Nusra as such and closely cooperated with it.
"Not long ago a real event occurred when in recent days the Syrian forces have been repelling fierce attacks of the organization called Jund al-Aqsa in the north of Hama region," he said.
"Yesterday the U.S. Department of State said that the United States placed the Jund al-Aqsa group on the list of terrorist organizations," Lavrov said. "I hope no-one will demand a truce with this terrorist organization."
Also, Lavrov pointed out that "there is a need to resume the work on lists of terrorist organizations. It is time for all to stop excusing the enemies of peace, those who refuse to fulfil agreements and UN resolutions, and to liken them to terrorists," he said.