MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The decision on a buffer zone on the border with Syria may only be made by the United Nations Security Council, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said Thursday.

“It is up to the UN Security Council to make decisions on these (buffer) zones,” Lukashevich said. “You remember the way it was in Iraq, Libya, and what it resulted in.”

The diplomat said decisions made by separate states or coalitions on establishment of buffer zones are illegitimate.

According to Lukashevich, the situation is becoming heated not only inside Syria but also on its borders. He stressed that missile and bomb strikes on the positions of radical Islamists delivered by the US Air Force and some of their Arab allies have become a new element to aggravate the situation in the country.

“These actions,” the diplomat said, “are carried out without Damascus’ consent and do not envision coordination of actions against radicals with government forces opposing them, which certainly reduces the effectiveness of such measures.”

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, jihadists, while trying to minimize losses, chose the tactic of deploying their detachments in inhabited localities and often use civilians as a human shield. “Areas inhabited by Kurds on the border with Turkey suffer the most from that,” he said.

Lukashevich noted that during their attack, Islamic State (IS) militants seized 70 villages in the vicinity of the city of Kobani. The militants’ utmost cruelty in regard to Kurds forced more than 200,000 people to flee.

“The actions of Americans in Syria, not authorized by anyone, are used by ideologists of extremists to further foment radical moods,” the diplomat said, adding that in their attempts to win over broad strata of Muslims, radical preachers repeat “the ancient prophecy on the war against the infidels” who are allegedly supposed to stand together against Muslims.

“Somewhere, this rhetoric does not remain traceless,” Lukashevich said. “For example, attacks on representatives of ethno-faith minorities have become more frequent in Syria.”

“A Franciscan priest and 20 Christians were recently captured in the country’s northwest. Their abductors think they must “pay for the deeds of initiators of a new ‘crusade’,” he pointed out.

“We are again drawing the attention of the international community that the fight against terrorism, this universal evil of our time, may become effective only if the efforts of all interested parties are consolidated on the generally accepted international legal basis,” Lukashevich said.

“But if counterterrorism operations are subordinated to mercenary interests connected for example with the change of unwanted regimes, then such a fight will not provide the desired results,” he said.

Fighting between Syrian government troops and militants has left over 100,000 people dead and displaced millions since its start in 2011, according to UN statistics.

The first two rounds of an international peace conference on Syria, dubbed Geneva-2, organized by Russia and the United States and designed to negotiate a solution to the Syrian crisis, brought no particular progress in January and February. The parties to the Syrian conflict agreed to continue their discussions.