News / Russia

US-led anti-Daesh coalition has failed in Iraq, Syria: Russia

Thursday, 10 December 2015 1:06 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 10 December 2015 7:59 PM ]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (AFP)

Russia says the so-called US-led coalition targeting purported Daesh positions in Iraq and Syria has failed to defeat or even contain the Takfiri terrorists.

"As a result of actions carried out by the coalition... Daesh has even expanded on the occupied territories and set its own anti-humane and criminal rules," said Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday.

Lavrov went on to compare the coalition’s actions in Syria to those of the US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, where “drug production increased tenfold during ten years of International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) operations."

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity 14 years after the United States and its allies attacked the country as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. Although the 2001 attack overthrew the Taliban, many areas across Afghanistan still face violence and insecurity.

He also stressed that those Western countries which are adamant on the resignation of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, are actually contributing to the expansion of the Daesh threat.

"If the 'Assad problem' is used as a major hindrance for setting up a broad international counter-terrorist organization, those who insist on that [Assad's resignation] will indirectly contribute to the Daesh’s expansion," he said.

Since September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has been conducting air raids against what are said to be the 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.

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