Russia says West’s insistence on Assad ouster ‘huge mistake’
Russia says the West is making a "huge mistake" by insisting on the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before it works more closely with Moscow in the fight against Daesh terrorist group.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in the Italian capital, Rome, on Friday that the US-led coalition purportedly fighting Daesh terrorists in Syria had decided not to fully coordinate with Russia due to Moscow’s support of the Syrian president.
"To say that we can only command the support of all coalition members when Assad is gone and until then we will be quite choosy as to the means of fighting terrorists, I believe is a huge mistake," Lavrov said.
He emphasized that only the Syrian people themselves must determine the fate of President Assad.
Russia started its air campaign against the Takfiris, including the Daesh terrorist group, in Syria on September 30, upon a request from the Syrian government and after the upper house of the Russian parliament gave President Vladimir Putin the green light to use military force in Syria.
The foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria, which flared in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 people and left over one million injured, according to the United Nations.
Since September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has been conducting air raids against what are said to be the Daesh terrorists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The air assaults in Syria are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against purported Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August 2014.
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