MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. Washington’s chief objective in Syria is either toppling Bashar al-Assad or destroying Syria’s integrity, in particular, with the help from Syrian Kurds’ armed groups, Boris Dolgov, Senior Research Fellow at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, told a round-table dedicated to the upcoming sixth round of negotiations on the Syrian settlement in Astana.

"I am confident that the United States’ objective is removing Assad from power or breaking up Syria as a country," he said. "They used to rely on Islamist forces, including extremist ones, but when this did not work, they began to support Kurdish forces vigorously."

According to the expert, the fact that the Syrian Kurds set a minimum goal of a broad autonomy for the Kurds, and, as maximum, creating an independent state, is in line with Washington’s plans in the region.

Dolgov stressed that the obvious evidence of the interest in Kurds’ support by the Americans are active weapons supplies to the Kurdish units by the US.