Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Moscow, SANA – Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Alexander Lukashevich stressed that any U.S. attack on sites belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist organization inside Syrian territories and with an official consent from the Syrian government and UN authorization constitutes an act of aggression against Syria.
In a statement to journalists in Moscow on Thursday, Lukashevich said that the U.S. President Barack Obama announced the possibility of striking ISIS sites in Syria without the approval of the legitimate Syrian government, affirming that such a step in the absence of a Security Council’s resolution will be an act of aggression and a flagrant violation of international law, stressing that any action against ISIS inside Syrian territories should be based on respecting Syria’s sovereignty.
He added that Moscow adhered to the truth that the U.S. turned a blind eye to a long time ago regarding the acts of extremists in Syria, and that the U.S. had had been counting on using these extremists to topple the legitimate Syrian government.
“Terrorists in Syria are not different from their counterpart in Iraq, but the U.S. recognized the danger of terrorists only after they control large areas of Iraq, Lukashevich pointed out.
He pointed out that Russia considers the U.S. administration’s double standards, which are evident in its attempts to replace real comprehensive work to counter terrorism with mysterious maneuvers, to be a very bad thing.
Lukashevich strongly condemned Obama’s stance as he offered support to the Iraqi government to confront terrorism and at the same time asked the Congress to allocate USD 500 million to support Syrian armed opposition which is not different at all from the ISIS extremists.
Russia: It’s too early to draw assumptions from OPCW report on possible use of chlorine gas in Syria
The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday saying that it’s too early to draw any assumptions from the report of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the possible use of chlorine gas, and that such assumptions must wait until the OPCW’s mission finishes its work and publishes a final report.
The Ministry said that it studied the report issued by the OPCW in this regard on Wednesday, which tackles events that took place in Syria between May 3rd and and June 31st in 2014, noting that this report is based on testimonies of people outside Syria and that the OPCW mission failed to procure samples from the areas in which the use of chlorine gas supposedly took place due to attacks by gunmen on the mission’s members.
B. Mousa/ H. Sabbagh
