US invasion of Iraq led to creation of Daesh, Russia says

Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Vitaly Churkin says the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States led to the ripening of the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group in the Middle East.

In an interview with the Russian news agency Rossiya Segodnya on Wednesday, Churkin said Daesh “ripened in Iraq during the US occupation… The American occupation should be blamed for the rise of ISIS (Daesh).”

The Russian diplomat called for the creation of an “international coalition” to fight the extremist militants operating in Syria and Iraq and termed the current US-led coalition purportedly targeting Daesh as “flawed.”

“The [US-led] coalition acts without the UN Security Council mandate and lacks some very important actors such as the Syrian government. That is why it is flawed,” Churkin said.

The comments came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe, proposed the formation of “a wide coalition to fight extremists without any delay. It should unite everyone who is ready and is already contributing to tackling terrorism.” 

Also on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the US-led coalition’s airstrikes against purported Daesh positions had failed to stop the terrorist group’s “expansion.”

Since September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has been conducting air raids against what are said to be Takfiri Daesh terrorists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

The air assaults in Syria are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against purported Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August 2014.

Russian aid to Damascus ‘lawful’

In his Wednesday remarks, Churkin, the Russian UN envoy, also defended Moscow’s military and humanitarian help to Damascus, saying all actions taken by his country in Syria “are coordinated with the Syrian government and stay within the norms of international law.”

Washington has objected to Moscow over the latter’s military aid to the Syrian government.

Moscow has been one of the main supporters of Syria since the foreign-backed militancy erupted in the Arab country in March 2011.

The conflict has claimed the lives of about 250,000 people, and caused nearly half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million to flee the country, with many thousands attempting to reach Europe.

Who’s the culprit?

In a phone interview with Press TV, political commentator Dmitry Babich said the reason why the US is making a fuss about Russia’s military aid to Syria is that Washington wants to “deflect attention from the American actions in…[Syria] and from the actions of the entire Western alliance [there].”

He further said that Washington is now even trying to use international organizations to “make Russia look like a culprit,” in the situation in Syria, while Moscow has not violated any laws since the eruption of the crisis in Syria. This is while, he said, the US and the European Union (EU) have supported an “armed insurgency” in the sovereign Arab state.

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