Russia dismisses Trump’s warning about offensive in Syria’s Idlib

Russia has strongly dismissed US President Donald Trump’s warning to Syria not to carry out a full-scale offensive against terrorists in the terrorist-held province of Idlib, stressing that the northwestern region is a “nest of terrorism.”

“Just to speak out with some warnings, without taking into account the very dangerous, negative potential for the whole situation in Syria, is probably not a full, comprehensive approach,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference in the capital Moscow on Tuesday.

Washington has been conducting airstrikes inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus. It has repeatedly been charged with targeting and killing civilians across the West Asian country.

Peskov added that the presence of foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists in Idlib was undermining the Syrian peace process and had turned the flash-point region to a base, from which terrorists carry out attacks, notably with “various unmanned aerial vehicles”, on Russian “temporary bases” in the Arab country.

“A fairly large group of terrorists has settled there and of course this leads to a general destabilization of the situation. It undermines attempts to bring the situation onto the track of a political-diplomatic settlement,” he further noted, adding that the Kremlin was aware that Syrian army was “preparing to resolve this problem.”

Russia commenced an anti-terror campaign, mainly through airstrikes, in militancy-infested Syria in September 2015, upon an official request from the Syrian president. Its assistance to the Syrian military in eliminating terrorists has significantly helped Damascus in retaking militant-held areas and cities across the Arab country.

Iran has been also helping Damascus in its fight against various factions of terrorists on its soil through providing the government troops with advisory assistance, based on an invitation by the Syrian government, since foreign-backed militancy broke out in the Arab country in March 2011.

SS