Photo: Press service of the Russian Defense Ministry
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly Jabhat al-Nsura) will be exterminated if powers having influence on the group fail to discipline it, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on February 19.
“The experience gained in Aleppo, when an agreement was reached with militants on their organized exodus, can be used in Eastern Ghouta. It took enormous effort to reach agreements on medical evacuation, first of all, of children and people needing emergency medical assistance. But subsequent efforts to organize large-scale evacuation of civilians from that area encountered Jabhat al-Nusra’s refusal as it seeks to keep these people as a human shield,” Lavrov said, according to the Russian state-run news agency TASS. “That is why we are asking our Western colleagues, who have influence of Jabhat al-Nusra, to take effort to discipline this structure, as far as resolution of humanitarian problems is concerned, otherwise it is to be exterminated.“
Lavrov emphasized that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is presented and continues attacking civilian facilities in the Damascus countryisde adding that the group “runs the show” in Idlib and Eastern Ghouta.
“We find it very worrisome that in fact only the Syrian army and the Russian aerospace group that supports it are trying to suppress this terrorist wing of Al-Qaeda (outlawed in Russia) and those collaborating with it,” the diplomat said. “All the calls to stop the offensive of the Syrian army that are accompanied by turning down our initiatives to provide guarantees that Janhat al-Nusra also stops, all these calls seem to be geared – and I have no other view of the situation – to spare Jabhat al-Nusra again.”
