Russia’s FM Blasts US-Led Discriminatory Attack on Terrorist Targets in Syria

Sergei Lavrov made the remarks in an interview with the Vesti.doc program of the Rossiya-1 television channel aired on Tuesday.

An analysis of the air raids “lead to a conclusion that they have been discriminatory, I would even say sparing,” Lavrov said, adding that in most cases the airstrikes did not harm the Daesh units.

“This is a rather dangerous and definitely dubious game which does not give the idea of what the United States really wants," he added.

The top Russian diplomat further compared the US policy in Syria with “sitting on two chairs,” describing the situation in the Arab country as “honey is sweet but the bee stings.”

The US-led coalition wants Daesh to “weaken” Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Lavrov said, adding that the alliance does not want the militant group to “strengthen too much either because it may grab power afterwards."

Since September 2014, the US along with some of its allies has been conducting air raids against what are said to be the Daesh terrorists inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. The air assaults in Syria are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against purported Daesh positions in Iraq, which started in August 2014. Analysts say the attacks have failed to disband the extremists.

Elsewhere in the interview, the Russian foreign minister further rejected as groundless the accusations that Moscow is striking civilians in Syria, emphasizing that the strikes are against “all who profess or preach the terrorist ideology.”

Russia launched its first airstrikes against Takfiri terrorists in Syria on September 30 at the request of the Damascus government. Moscow says its air raids are meant to weaken Daesh and other terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in Syria.