Russia helps transfer the fighters from Syria to Libya. This statement was made during a telephone briefing by the Special Representative of the State Department, James Jeffrey, assessing the situation in the African country, where the armed conflict continues.
According to Jeffrey, Russia is "working with [Syrian President Bashar] Assad's plan to transfer fighters, possibly from third countries or Syrians, to Libya, as well as equipment." However, the diplomat could not provide any evidence of this.
Earlier the Russian side, according to TASS, has repeatedly denied such allegations of Western countries.
The Kremlin, in particular, called the US statements about "military intervention" by Russia in the settlement of the situation in Libya fake news.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also stressed that the allegations about Russian-linked "mercenaries" are nothing more than rumors.
During the briefing, Jeffrey also said that the US is not seeking Russia's withdrawal from Syria.
"As for achieving Russia's withdrawal from Syria, we have never had such a goal. Russia has been there for 30 years. It has a long-term relationship with Syria. We don't think this is good for the region or even for Russia itself. But we do not have such a policy. Our policy is to restore the situation for 2011, before the conflict started, and this would eventually lead to the withdrawal of all the armed forces that entered the country. We are, of course, most interested from this point of view in (leaving) the Iranians and the militias under Iranian command," the State Department's Special Representative was quoted as saying by TASS.
At the same time, according to Jeffrey, Russia wants to win "victory on the cheap" in Syria.
"It is typical for the Russians to show more or less tactical flexibility in relation to us on the Syrian settlement, but, in the end, they define as a compromise a situation where we go to 80% of the compromise, and Russia - only 20%. This is unacceptable for us, as it is for many countries that work with us," Jeffrey said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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