MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. The United States’ military presence in southern Syria is illegal, Russian president’s envoy for the Middle East and African countries and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Tuesday, June 20.

"It is absolutely illegal. There is neither a United Nations Security Council resolution nor a request from Syria’s legitimate authorities to this effect," he told journalists. "It’s a principle of international law."

According to the Russian diplomat, it is applicable not only to the US military presence but also "to the Turks and all the rest."

"We are present there at the request from the legitimate authorities," Bogdanov stressed.

"Any presence, especially military presence, on the territory of a sovereign state is possible only when there is a corresponding resolution of the United Nations Security Council or a request or consent from the legitimate authorities," he underscored.

Contacts on Syria between Russia and the United States are not ruled out in the immediate future, he went on. "No, obviously, how can we exclude them <...>," he told the journalists.