Russia’s foreign minister defended Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Sunday, insisting that there is no solid proof to support reports that he is cooperating with Daesh/ISIS. Sergey Lavrov made his comments to Russian television.
“Common sense dictates that nobody would cooperate with an organisation that wants to impose its control and authority over large areas of territory in the region,” said Lavrov. “It is not possible that Assad is collaborating with someone who wants and seeks to undermine his authority and his country.”
The Russian official added that there is a lot of superficiality in dealing with the matter. “There is also a lot of speculation which tries to show Assad’s cooperation with Daesh as a reality, which is far from the truth.”
He urged the United States to cooperate with Bashar Al-Assad to fight ISIS, saying that this requires an international coalition of all those who believe that the jihadists are a common enemy.
“Our American partners and some countries in the region persistently refuse to recognise Assad as a partner, which is rather strange,” explained Lavrov. “Assad was accepted as a fully legitimate partner in destroying chemical weapons but somehow he isn’t when it comes to fighting terrorism.”