A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described the continued presence of US troops in Syria as destabilizing, citing constructive co-operation within the Russia-Iran-Syria-Iraq counter-terrorism exchange.
Commenting on Pentagon spokeswoman John Kirby’s statement that US troops had no intention of withdrawing from Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that the United States was working to strengthen its military presence in Syria under the pretext of fighting Terrorism will not help stabilize and normalize the situation in this region.
The diplomat said: “Pentagon officials are hiding the fact from the public that US military units are on Syrian soil without the permission of the US government, That is why this presence is illegal, and although efforts are being made to link the strengthening of US military units to the fight against terrorism, we believe that this will not help normalize the situation and stabilize it in Syria and in the Middle East as a whole. The problem is that the Americans are pursuing a completely different goal in Syria, which has been talked about many times.”
Zakharova stressed that Russia, above all, has played a decisive role in suppressing international terrorist cells on Syrian soil. According to her, in the framework of the information exchange center in Baghdad to fight terrorist groups, especially ISIS, very effective military cooperation continues between Russia, Iran, Syria and Iraq.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman continued: “Cooperation between the Iraqi and Syrian governments in eliminating the remaining terrorist cells in the two countries is also an important factor in stabilizing the situation in the region, and the Russian side will provide all necessary assistance in this regard.”
It should be noted that a Pentagon spokeswoman announced yesterday that the US military does not intend to leave Syria at this time, because, according to Washington officials, the terrorist threat in this country has not yet disappeared.
Speculation about Russia’s possible involvement in the Minsk airport accident is unfounded.
In another part of her press conference, Maria Zakharova called the efforts of some Western countries to accuse Russia of involvement in the forced landing of a Ryanair passenger plane at Minsk airport nothing but baseless speculation and reminded that the party Rossi hopes for a thorough and realistic investigation into the incident in Belarus.
She said: “We have noticed that in some interpretations made by Western countries, there is speculation that Moscow may also be involved in this incident,” he said. “Such an accusation is completely baseless.”