ANKARA, June 8. /TASS/. Russia is closely cooperating with Turkey on the Syrian settlement and understands Ankara's concerns about threats created by external forces on its borders with Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday at a joint news conference following talks with Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.
"We understand perfectly well the concerns of our [Turkish] friends about the threats created on their borders by external forces, including by illegally present in Syria US units that fuel separatist sentiments, and we spoke honestly about this today," he said, "We understand those concerns because for a long time, too, external forces have been creating threats right on our borders, so we will continue to cooperate on Syrian affairs."
In this connection, the head of the Russian diplomatic mission confirmed Moscow's unchangeable commitment to the Russian-Turkish bilateral agreements at the highest level on the Syrian settlement. According to him, the agreements reached are being implemented slowly, but the sides fully share the goals set.
"We are not dramatizing the slow progress of the Syrian Constitutional Committee," he continued, "I guess the delegation, which is called pro-governmental, as well as the opposition, could be a little more constructive, and we encourage them to do so."
The minister drew attention to the fact that the general background in which the mentioned talks are taking place is negative. "Our American and some European colleagues have already repeatedly made public statements that there will be no normal relations, no sanctions relief under the [Bashar] al-Assad regime, as they put it," he explained, "The problems of Syria now are not so much in the military-political sphere, but in the socio-economic sphere, and the long-standing disregard of the Western community of the need to solve these problems creates very, very negative conditions for seeking agreements within the framework of preserving the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria, as it is written in the UN Security Council resolution."
UN’s role
"Even the resolutions that were passed a year ago, which require on behalf of the UN Security Council to start restoring at least the basic healthcare, education infrastructure, power, water supply - all these resolutions are ignored," Lavrov summarized, "And, of course, the UN itself should work a little more actively in contacts with those who are traditionally the donors of the institutions in charge of this direction in the UN system. We will continue our efforts, but let me stress once again that the completely suffocating sanctions in the form of the American so-called Caesar Act simply block any, even simple projects in the purely humanitarian sphere.