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Russia ready to co-op with US to free Syria’s Raqqah: Lavrov

Monday, 14 March 2016 10:32 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 14 March 2016 10:31 AM ]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrives for a news conference after the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) meeting in Munich, southern Germany, on February 12, 2016. (AFP photo)

Russia says it is ready to work with the US-led coalition in Syria to retake the Daesh stronghold of Raqqah from Takfiri terrorists.

“We are ready to coordinate our actions with the Americans, because Raqqah is in the eastern part of Syria, and the American coalition is mainly ... acting there,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Ren-TV television channel.

Lavrov also said that Washington had earlier expressed keenness to divide the operations in Syria, with the US and its coalition partners working to recapture Raqqah, and Russia being tasked with liberating the ancient city of Palmyra in the central Homs Province.

“Perhaps, this is no secret, if I say that at some stage the Americans suggested performing a ‘division of labor;’ the Russian Air forces should concentrate on the liberation of Palmyra, and the American coalition with Russian support will focus on the liberation of Raqqah,” Lavrov further said.

Russia launched its air campaign against the Takfiri Daesh terrorists and other militant groups in Syria on September 30 upon a request from the Damascus government.

The US, along with some of its allies, has also been conducting air raids against purported Daesh positions inside Syria without an authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate since September 2014. The air assaults are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign in neighboring Iraq, which started in August that year.

Many parties to the coalition are widely accused of having contributed to the rise of terror groups in Syria over the past few years.

Syria has been gripped by a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a February report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of some 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

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