Russia accuses US of protecting extremists in Syria

Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Washington had pledged “as a priority” to separate the Syrian opposition from the former Al Qaeda affiliate previously known as Jabhat Al Nusra but had not honoured that promise.

US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov look at one another during a press conference following their meeting in Geneva where they discussed the crisis in Syria on September 9, 2016. Fabrice Coffrini/AFPShow less

BEIRUT // Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday accused the United States of protecting an extremist group in Syria “just in case” they could be useful in overthrowing president Bashar Al Assad.

But in a telephone call to US secretary of state John Kerry, Mr Lavrov also stressed Moscow “remains open to dialogue with the United States on all key issues” and was ready to consider “additional possibilities” on how to normalise the situation in Aleppo.

In an interview broadcast on Friday, Mr Lavrov said Washington had pledged “as a priority” to separate the Syrian opposition from the former Al Qaeda affiliate previously known as Jabhat Al Nusra but had not honoured that promise.

“We have more and more reasons to believe that from the very beginning the plan was to spare Nusra and to keep it just in case for Plan B or stage two when it would be time to change the regime,” said Mr Lavrov.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the US of failing on its commitment to persuade rebel forces to separate themselves from extremist groups such as Al Nusra, which changed its name to Jabhat Fatah Al Sham in July after renouncing its ties to Al Qaeda. A short-lived truce brokered by Moscow and Washington in September could have led the two countries to coordinate strikes against those extremists, but the deal fell apart with each side blaming the other for its failure.

Moscow has been accused of helping the Syrian army to capture all of Aleppo by indiscriminately bombing the opposition-controlled eastern part of the city.

It is now a year since Russia became actively involved in the Syrian war – an involvement that at least one opposition-supporting group says has cost more than 9,000 lives and left tens of thousands more destitute.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, air strikes in the last year have killed 9,364 people in Syria, of which 3,804 are civilians and 906 are children. The dead also include 2,746 members of ISIL and 2,814 from other rebel and militant groups, including Jabhat Fatah Al Sham.

The Syrian Observatory is a monitoring service based in Britain. The group tracks the war through a network of sources on the ground in Syria, including medical personnel as well as activists and is regularly consulted by many news outlets.

However, Russia dismissed the information as unreliable. “We do not consider as reliable the information ... coming from this organisation, which is based in the United Kingdom,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Though based in Britain, the Syrian Observatory monitors the war via a network of sources on the ground in Syria, including medical personnel as well as activists and is regularly consulted by many news outlets.

Mr Peskov said the bombing campaign would continue in spite of international concern over Aleppo, and that Russia’s involvement in Syria was justified because it had prevented extremists from capturing the capital Damascus.

Speaking on the first anniversary of Russian operations in Syria, Mr Peskov said on Friday that president Vladimir Putin had never stipulated how long the bombing mission might last, and would will not give a timeline now. Russia’s declared goal was to support the Syrian government of Russia’s long-term ally Bashar Al Assad and Mr Peskov insisted that in that respect the operation has been a success.

Without it, ISIL and other “terrorists” would have been “sitting in Damascus”, he said.

However, the Russian foreign ministry felt it necessary to issue a warning to Russians abroad about possible “provocations”, urging them to exercise caution.

Also on Friday, Syrian regime forces advanced on two fronts around Aleppo and Syrian state TV reported intense fighting in the central Suleiman Al Halaby area where it said troops captured several buildings. The area is home to a main water stations that supplies Aleppo with drinking water and the assault prompted the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to accuse the Syrian government and its Moscow allies of turning the city into “a giant kill box”.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Human Rights Council is to convene a high-level panel to discuss human rights in Syria at its next session, including witness testimonies.

The 47-member body in Geneva passed a resolution on Friday by a vote of 26-7 with 14 abstentions that calls for a panel to discuss issues such as enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention and the need for accountability for related violations and abuses in Syria. The measure was the latest in a string of resolutions on Syria at the council, which has had a Commission of Inquiry investigating abuses and crimes there since 2011.

* With agencies