Syrian partition must be avoided, urges Russian Defence Minister

Astana: Russian Defence Minister Sergei Lavrov urged that the integrity of Syria is important and the attempt to divide Syria by dislodging the Assad regime should be foiled. A joint meeting of Russia, Iran and Turkey was convened in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana. The Russian Defence Minister forwarded this demand in this meeting.

It was reported a few months ago that the United States was trying to divide Syria. Russia, the Assad regime in Syria, Iran and Turkey had reacted strongly to this report. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russia had warned of foiling these efforts to divide Syria.

Against this background, the Russian Defence Minister at the meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan reiterated that his country was firm on maintaining the Syrian integrity. ‘Some countries are openly violating the international law, the Resolution 2254 and making moves to divide Syria. This is an attempt to throw out the ruling government in this Middle Eastern country and to divide it into smaller parts which will be under external control. The countries present in Astana will not tolerate this’, was the stern warning issued by Russian Defence Minister Lavrov.

In the month of January, Rex Tillerson, the then Secretary of State of the United States had indicated the partition of Syria in one of his statements. Tillerson had said that this could be an important alternative to stop the conflict and instability in Syria. Senior military officials and diplomats in the United States also had made statements about the partition of Syria.