West supports terrorists in Syria: Russia foreign minister
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has criticized as “absolutely unacceptable” the Western countries’ support for the terrorists in Syria.
In an interview with Russia Today on Monday, Lavrov said Western countries had dichotomized the terrorists into “bad” and “acceptable,” supporting the latter.
“It's absolutely unacceptable, and if we follow this logic it might lead us to a very dangerous situation not only in the Middle East but in other parts of the world, if our partners in the West would begin to qualify terrorists as bad terrorists and acceptable terrorists,” The Russian foreign minister said.
He said the Western powers "encourage rebels not to negotiate with the [Syrian] government but to continue fighting and [are] giving them arms, money, and moral and political support.”
He said that if the Western sides really want to end the bloodshed in the Arab country, they should encourage all those fighting against the Syrian government to stop violence and sit at the negotiating table without any preconditions.
The top Russian official also rejected reports that Syria might have plans to use chemical weapons during the ongoing turmoil in the country.
“Every time we hear rumors ... that the Syrians are doing something with the chemical weapons, we double-check, we triple-check, we go directly to the government and all the time we get very firm assurances that this is not going to be used under any circumstances,” he said.
He added that Syria was moving chemical weapons’ stocks dispersed in various locations into two sites to make sure that they are absolutely protected and are not going to be accessed by the militants.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence.
Source: presstv.com
