Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday said that Russia is fighting for its national interests in Syria, not for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“Of course we are not fighting for specific leaders, we are defending our national interests, on the one hand,” Medvedev said in an interview to air on state television.
“And secondly, we have a request from the lawful authorities [of Syria]. That is the basis we are working on,” he said, quoted on the government Web site.
Photo: EPA
Medvedev said Russia in Syria is defending itself against the threat of Muslim extremists coming to its own country.
“The [Russian] president [Vladimir Putin] said this: It’s obvious that if we don’t destroy these terrorists there, they will come to Russia,” Medvedev said.
It does not matter to Russia who heads Syria in the future, as long as it is not the Islamic State (IS) group, Medvedev said.
“We don’t want IS to head Syria... It should be civilized, legitimate authorities,” he said. “Who will lead Syria should be decided by the Syrian people.”
Russia is “working on the basis that [al-]Assad is the legitimate president,” he added.
Moscow this week expressed outrage that the US declined to host a Russian delegation on Syria led by Medvedev.
“I think this is stupid behavior,” Medvedev said. “As a result of such decisions or a refusal to hold talks, the Americans just demonstrate their weakness.”
Medvedev said that the US operation in Syria had “practically zero” impact on the Islamic State group and “only Russia’s intervention changed the situation.”
On Friday, Syrian troops backed by Russian air power and allied militias opened a new front against rebels around the second city of Aleppo, where Washington said up to 2,000 Iran-backed forces were deployed.
The Aleppo offensive is the fourth that al-Assad’s regime has launched since Moscow began an air campaign on Sept. 30.
Control of Aleppo city, once the country’s economic hub, has been divided between the regime and rebels since mid-2012. The front lines there and in the surrounding countryside have long been static.
A security source said the operation in the southern Aleppo Governorate was backed by Russian strikes and fighters from Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia.
The joint command for the Aleppo operation said the army had begun operations on the western and southern outskirts of Aleppo “to liberate you from the armed terrorist groups.”
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