Russia strongly condemns the US attack on Syrian forces

Russia has condemned yesterday’s US attack on a convoy of Syrian Arab Army and allied forces in southern Syria.

Russia criticised the United States for claiming that the Syrians encroached on a de-escalation zone when no such thing happened. In reality, the United States unilaterally decided to name one of it’s zones of occupation in southern Syria as a de-escalation   zone without approval of Syria or the Astana group whose responsibility it is to police and oversee the legitimate de-escalation zones in the country.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the attack was,

“…an aggressive act, that violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and – deliberately or not – targeted the forces which are most effective in fighting terrorists on the ground”.

Lavrov continued to slam the American invention of a unilateral ‘de-escalation zone’ saying,

“I don’t know anything about such zones. This must be some territory, which the coalition unilaterally declared (de-escalation zones) and where it probably believes to have a sole right to take action. We cannot recognise such zones”.

Lavrov also said,

“This approach was agreed to by Syria. We consider illegitimate any unilateral declaration of ‘deconfliction zones’ not endorsed by Damascus. We hope the coalition will adhere to the agreement it has reached with us, which states that the de-escalation zones must be agreed to in detail by all stakeholders”.

The Russian Foreign Minister further stated that because the Syrian convoy which was attacked was on its way to engage ISIS troops, the US strike could have aided Salafist terrorists.