Moscow:

Increasing number of US troops in southern Syria illegal

TEHRAN(defapress) – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov stressed that increasing the number the US troops in southern Syria is illegal.

News ID: 65200

Date: 21 June 2017 - 14:33

"It is absolutely illegal as the move was not made in accordance with any decision, reached by the UN Security Council, nor was it made following a request by the legitimate authorities in the Syrian Arab Republic”, said Bogdanov in a press conference held Tuesday.

He added that Syria is a sovereign state and a UN member state, affirming that its sovereignty and territorial integrity should be respected according to the international law.

Bogdanov said that Moscow does not exclude the possibility of contacts with the US on Syria within a short time.

Earlier, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that the situation related to the US-led coalition’s actions stirs serious concern.

As for Astana, Bogdanov affirmed that delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic stressed its participation in Astana talks set for July 4th and 5th.

In the same context, Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that that the US airstrikes on Syria is collusion with terrorists.

Ryabkov told Interfax news agency in an interview that the US airstrikes that targeted the Syrian warplane affirms the US flagrant collusion with terrorism which is active in the Syrian territories.