International Shia News Agency

PressTV/ US-led coalition seeking to covertly topple Assad:Lavrov

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- Russia has accused the US-led coalition against the ISIL terrorist group of seeking to “surreptitiously” topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government through its airstrikes in Syria.

Lavrov made the remarks on Saturday during a forum of political analysts in the capital of Moscow.

“Possibly…this is not so much an operation against Islamic State (ISIL) as the preparation for an operation to change the regime surreptitiously under the cover of this anti-terrorist operation,” said Lavrov.

The top Russian diplomat also accused the US of having “perverted logic” over the Syrian president, saying Washington blamed Assad’s regime for the surge of militants arriving to the Middle Eastern region.

“The Americans say that Assad’s regime is a very important factor that brings terrorists to the region to try to topple him. I think this is absolutely perverted logic,” said Lavrov.

The US and its allies launched their air campaign in Syria in September without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

According to Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, Lavrov said his US counterpart, John Kerry, told him that the US did not ask for a mandate from the UN Security Council as this would require “defining the status of Assad’s regime somehow.”

The US and its regional allies – especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – have been supporting the militants operating inside Syria for more than three years.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011. According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, more than 200,000 people have died in the Syrian conflict since March 2011.

 

Source: PressTV

www.shafaqna.com

 

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