Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (AFP Photo)
Presstv.com
Russian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow will continue helping
Damascus in order to avoid a repetition of the Libyan scenario in
Syria. In a Thursday briefing with reporters in Moscow,
Lavrov said that Russia’s military assistance to the Syrian government
is meant to avoid a regime change in Syria like what the western powers
orchestrated in Libya.
“We helped and we continue to
help the Syrian government equip the Syrian army with everything it
needs to prevent [a repetition of] the Libyan scenario and other
regretful events that happened in that region because some of our
Western partners were possessed with the idea of removing undesirable
regimes,” Lavrov said.
He denied speculations that
Russia is engaged in a military buildup in Syria as suggested by the
United States and the NATO. Lavrov said, however, that Russia will
continue to send military equipment to the Syrian government as well as
the humanitarian items Damascus needs for its people. . “There are
Russian military personnel in Syria; they have been there for several
years. Their presence is tied to the deliveries of arms for the Syrian
army that is taking the brunt in the fight against terrorism from the
Islamic State (Daesh) and other extremist groups,” said the top Russian
diplomat. A
handout picture released on July 26, 2015 by the official Syrian Arab
News Agency (SANA) shows President Bashar al-Assad waving to the crowd
following a speech in the capital Damascus. (AFP Photo) The
comments came against the backdrop of claims in the West that Russia is
deploying troops and military personnel in Syria. Moscow says it has
never kept its military cooperation with Syria a secret. It says
“military specialists” are openly being sent to the Arab state, where
the government is engaged in heavy battles with foreign-backed Takfiri
terrorists. . Russia has been one of the main backers of the Syrian
government since an armed militancy broke out there over four years ago.
The US, nevertheless, has actively sought the ouster of Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad by supporting the militants operating in the
country. Moscow and Washington have also been at odds over an armed
conflict in Ukraine, where they support the opposing sides of a bloody
battle in the east of the country. . Nearly 250,000 Syrians have been killed in the four-year violence.
