Russian TASS News Agency quoted Lavrov as saying during the forum of young diplomats from the Asia-Pacific region, held as part of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok city, “I’m satisfied by the fact that we have a very professional channel of communication with the United States between our militaries on problems of the Syrian crisis.”
He continued to say that Russia was invited by Syria’s legitimate government while the US military presence there is illegitimate.
“I assume that the contacts on Syria that we still keep via political channels will help us find mutually acceptable approaches, acceptable first of all from the point of view of the Syrians themselves,” he added.
Lavrov called for fighting extremism instead of using it for timeserving goals, stressing “right now we are facing the threats of terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, and I hope that the understanding of the need to jointly fight this evil will prevail, instead of playing against each other in this or that situation – like in Syria, for example – and to use the threat of extremism to achieve timeserving goals.”
1396**1396
Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish