Nebenzia: One of Russia's priorities is to clear mines left by terrorists in Syria

Moscow-Sana

Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, affirmed that his country is making every effort to create a world free of mines and to make removing mines left by terrorists in Syria one of its priorities.

"This matter is necessary to rebuild the infrastructure in Syria and return refugees to their countries," TASS news agency quoted Nebenzia as saying today.

Nebenzia indicated that in the years 2016-2017, the Russian engineering forces carried out mine clearance operations in the cities of Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Palmyra, pointing to his country's assistance to Syria in removing mines and explosives from the areas liberated from terrorists.

Nebenzia explained that the Russian military has cleared more than 6,500 hectares of Syrian territory and more than 17 thousand sites and dismantled more than 105 thousand explosive devices, stressing that "Russia is mobilizing relevant international efforts to eliminate the threat of mines in Syria."

He called on Nebenzia to actively participate in the next international conference on removing mines and improvised explosive devices, which will be held from the 25th to the 28th of next May in the Russian capital, Moscow.

And Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations, Bassam Sabbagh, confirmed in a statement he presented to the presidency of the Security Council during today's session on "mine action" that despite the liberation of large areas of its lands from terrorism, the danger is still affecting the lives of its citizens on a daily basis due to the presence of remnants of terrorist organizations In some areas and the presence of large areas of land that these organizations have densely planted with various types of mines and improvised explosive devices, which leads to the loss of thousands of civilians' lives.