BEIRUT, November 6. /TASS/. Syria asked Russia’s quality weapons to counteract future challenges, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Thursday.

“We addressed Russians and asked them to use time for supplies of qualitatively new weapons,” Muallem said.

He explained that the request had been made due to Syria’s fears of the possible unfavourable development of events.

“Syria treated the US-led coalition strikes as a fait accompli. There is no coordination or any deal between us and Americans. For the moment air strikes are delivered on the Islamic State (IS) and do not affect the Syrian army,” Muallem said.

“We understand that US President Barack Obama seeks to avoid the war with Syria by confining itself to the Air Force’s intervention against the Islamic State. It is useful for us,” he said.

“However, we know how Obama will behave if pressure on him increases in case of the Republicans’ victory in the midterm elections. We should prepare. We told Russians about it sincerely,” Muallem said.

Damascus “took a strategic decision to offer rebuff to any aggression from Turkey”. “That is why we hope that our armed forces’ capability will qualitatively increase in the near future. This will allow us to defeat the aggressor,” he said.

At the same time, Muallem said, “Washington rejects Turkey’s conditions for interfering in Syria.”

He denied reports saying the Syrian government would address Russia to provide a loan in the amount of $1 billion. “I don’t know where this information came from. But it is wrong,” Muallem said.