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Lavrov: US actions could break up Syria
February 20, 2018, 10:21 am

Lavrov previously said that there are many possible avenues of cooperation between Russia and the US in Syria [Xinhua]


In a deja vu warning, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is warning the US that its actions in Syria will break up the country.

Four years ago, Lavrov accused the US and its invasion of Iraq of plunging the entire Middle East into chaos.

“We warned long ago that the adventurism the Americans and the British started there would not end well,” he said at the time.

Now, the Russian foreign minister is accusing the Americans of using the Kurds to partition Syria, which would be tantamount to playing with fire.

He said that he feared that Washington was not looking at the long-term effects of their meddling in Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In 2017, the US maintained its influence on the Al-Tanf region which borders Jordan and Iraq currently houses a large refugee camp, but Russian officials have charged that some hostile factions, such as the terrorist Al Nusra Front, slip in and out of the area.

Lavrov has called on the US to “shut down” this area.

He also warned Israel and Iran not to use Syria for their proxy conflict saying that a de-escalation zone in the southwest was being violated.

He called on both Israel and Iran to back down from their increased war footing in the area.

Lavrov pointed to the military and political debacle in Iraq since the US invasion as an example of what can happen when the US meddles in the region.

“Iraq’s unity has been called into question …Terrorism is rampant there because the occupation forces paid virtually no attention to the internal political processes, and did not facilitate national dialogue, but pursued their own interests exclusively,” Lavrov said in comments carried by the Russian Interfax agency.

The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies