US actions in Syria's Dayr al-Zawr ‘illegitimate': Russia’s FM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says actions taken by the United States in Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr are “illegitimate.”

“What is happening on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River clearly violates the commitment to Syria’s territorial integrity as declared by all and confirmed in the UN Security Council’s resolution. In my view, this is already evident for all,” Lavrov said in an interview with Rossiya 1 TV channel on Sunday.

The Russian top diplomat added that Washington was trying to pretend that the presence of its military forces in the Arab country and the steps it took there were “temporary,” implying that the truth is otherwise.

Since September 2014, the United States has been leading a military coalition conducting airstrikes against purported targets of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group inside Syria without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.

PressTV-US-led coalition strikes kill 206 in Syria’s Dayr al-Zawr

At least 206 civilians were killed in November this year by US-led airstrikes on Syria’s eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr.

Lavrov said the Pentagon, which is deploying soldiers and advisers to Syria, is playing a very dangerous game related to the Kurds, ignoring the sensitivity of the issue not only to Syria, but also Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

“Unacceptable things are happening on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River. The US is trying to establish quasi-state structures. They earmark hundreds of millions of dollars into rebuilding these areas, so that people could return to a normal peaceful life, but they refuse to restore infrastructure on the territories, which are controlled by the Syrian government,” he added.

Daesh has already lost all of its urban strongholds in Syria thanks to the Syrian army’s counterterrorism offensives, backed by Russian air cover, which began in September 2015 upon an official request from the Syrian government.

Daesh started a campaign of terror against Syria and Iraq in 2013 and 2014, respectively.

Russia on multiple occasions has strongly urged the so-called US-led coalition to leave the Arab country as it is not welcome there, but all to no avail.

PressTV-US troops must leave Syria after Daesh: Russia FM

The Russian foreign minister says the US-led coalition has to leave the Arab country after the defeat of Daesh.

In October last year, Lavrov said the presence of the US-led coalition in the form of “a wide range of foreign countries” is “illegitimate” because “nobody has invited them” to the Arab country.

Elsewhere in his remarks on Sunday, the Russian top diplomat said over the years, the Western countries have not offered any reasonable alternatives to the ideas and initiatives set by the guarantor states -- namely Russia, Iran and Turkey -- within peace negotiations in Astana, Kazakhstan, in terms of combating terrorism, creating conditions for the return of the displaced Syrians, humanitarian assistance, and the political process in the country.

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