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Alexander Lavrentiev, the Russian president's special envoy to Syria and head of the Russian delegation to the 19th international meeting in the Astana format, confirmed that the Turkish attacks on Syrian territory will escalate the situation in the entire Middle East region, noting that these attacks coincided with the Astana meetings and affected the progress of the talks.
Lavrentiev said during a press conference today after the end of the meeting in the Kazakh capital: We pay great attention to the Astana process, as we had yesterday and today many detailed consultations and meetings with delegations from Iran and Turkey, and from Syria and with the "Syrian opposition", and with the participating countries as observers and the special envoy. To the Secretary-General of the United Nations to Syria, Geir Pedersen, and we feel satisfied with the results of the international meeting in order to coordinate our efforts and the efforts of all parties, not just the guarantor countries (Russia, Iran and Turkey), indicating that the situation in Syria in general is still difficult, as there are a large number of terrorist organizations Not only in Idlib, like (Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham), but there are many sleeper cells that carry out terrorist attacks in various Syrian lands.
Lavrentiev added: The meeting in Astana coincided with the Turkish air raids on the Syrian and Iraqi lands, and this greatly affected the course of our talks. Syria, because in this case we will witness a major escalation not only in Syria but in the Middle East region as a whole, and this cannot be allowed, and we count on that Turkey will hear our position and find other options, and we will continue to provide assistance in this regard.
Lavrentiev continued: The air strikes are very unfortunate, and the ground operation that Turkey is talking about will lead to greater civilian casualties, so these actions must be abandoned because carrying out such operations increases the terrorist threat on Syrian and Turkish lands..and the Turkish side must take this into account. It takes rational measures and solutions.
Lavrentiev stressed that the position of the United States is destructive, as it occupies parts of the Syrian lands, as it provides the separatist militias in northeastern Syria with weapons and military equipment, and forms a focus in the Al-Tanf region for training terrorists who carry out attacks from the region, stressing that the exit of the American occupation forces will contribute to The return of security and stability.
Lavrentiev pointed out that the West is trying to exploit the crisis in Syria as one of the issues in confronting Russia, which stems from the fact that the international community must work to unify and coordinate joint efforts to stabilize the situation in Syria.
Lavrentiev said: We discussed many issues related to the social and economic situation, and stressed the need to lift the sanctions imposed on Syria. The United Nations Special Rapporteur, Elena Douhan, visited Syria, and prepared a report on the negative effects of the sanctions, in which she called for their lifting because they had devastating effects on various sectors, including social ones. The international organization must study this report and take appropriate decisions in this regard.
Lavrentiev pointed out the need for the international community to contribute effectively and without politicization to the return of Syrian refugees to their country, and to implement early recovery projects to improve the economic situation in Syria, pointing out that the West is not implementing its commitments in this regard and there are doubts about the implementation of these projects, and therefore we will establish a “mechanism” at the end of next month. Entering cross-border aid” and discussing the possibility of extending Security Council Resolution 2642.
Regarding the repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian lands, Lavrentiev said: We have affirmed our positions in the joint statement. We categorically reject these strikes that not only destroy infrastructure but also kill civilians. These actions are illegal and do not comply with any international standards. We demand (Israel) ) to stop these raids and we will continue to work on this issue.
Lavrentiev pointed out that Russia welcomes the participation of China as an observer in the Astana formula, because this participation will be very useful in terms of helping to find a political solution to the crisis in Syria and Beijing's contribution to the reconstruction process, explaining that the matter is not only related to China, but that Moscow supports the accession of countries other to the Astana format as an observer.
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