The United States realizes that the presence of its troops in Syria is uncomfortable and inconvenient for them, and will eventually withdraw from the Arab republic, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday in an interview with RT television on the international agenda.
"I think the Americans understand that they are uncomfortable there [in Syria]," Lavrov said. - "But as long as they are there, we have a dialogue on the military line quite effectively and in terms of preventing unintentional incidents, and there are consultations, quite trusting, to exchange views on the political process and the prospects for implementing the Security Council resolution".
According to the Russian Foreign Minister, the true goals of the presence of US troops in Syria are quite clear. He explained, "The Americans didn't conceal them, when they took under their control hydrocarbons, fields on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, agricultural land, and started to nurture Kurdish separatism there in every possible way," he explained. - "Everybody knows that, and the territories where it is happening partly touch the lands of the traditional Arab tribes, which does not add to the harmony in this part and does not give credibility to the American planners of their actions in the Syrian direction, including the Kurdish factor and the consideration of relations between the Kurds and the Arabs".
Turkey and the Kurds
Lavrov also pointed to the complicated situation related to Turkey's position, which views Kurdish organizations cooperating with the Americans as branches of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, recognized as terrorists by Ankara. "The Kurds themselves, in particular the political wing - the Democratic Union Party, the Council for a Democratic Syria - they have to make up their minds. Remember, at some point [former US President] Donald Trump said: "We're getting out of there, there's nothing for us to do in Syria." Immediately the Kurds started asking, including us, to help establish a dialogue with Damascus. A few days later Donald Trump was disavowed, and someone there in the Pentagon said: "No, we're not leaving yet." The Kurds immediately lost interest in dialogue with the Syrian leadership," he added.
"You just have to understand here that eventually the Americans are going to leave there. They are getting more problems there now, including the Rukban refugee camp, the 55-kilometer zone around Al-Tanf, where they impose their orders, but they can't really ensure the viability of these structures, plus a lot of bandits and terrorists have accumulated there among the refugees," the Russian foreign minister stressed.
Lavrov is convinced that Kurds should take a principled position and Russia is ready to help them with this. "They are coming to us. Just recently, Mrs. [Chairman of the Executive Committee Ilham] Ahmed was here from the "Council of Democratic Syria." We explain to our Turkish colleagues that we don't want to fuel any negative trends for Turkey at all. On the contrary, our task is to help ensure in practice the requirement of respect for the sovereignty of Syria's territorial integrity. And of course, taking into account the interests of national minorities is one of the key conditions", concluded the head of the Russian diplomatic mission.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS