Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham must be on list of terrorist groups in Syria, Moscow says

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Jouhina news,

“Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham are criminal and terrorist organizations, which must be eliminated and their criminal activities must be stopped,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told TASS News Agency.

The Russian side so far believes it is unnecessary to make public its proposals for the list of terrorist groups active in Syria that should be excluded from the political settlement process, Syromolotov said in an interview with TASS, adding that “The work on the list of terrorist groups in Syria that would be acceptable for all has not been finished yet,” he said.

“I will not report the exact list of our proposals on the candidates to be put on the terrorist list – it is still part of the process of coordination of positions that should unite all members of the international Syria Support Group, so the haste and even publicity is apparently unnecessary here.

“Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar ash-Sham are criminal terrorist organisations that should be liquidated, and their criminal activity – stopped. There is, believe me, convincing evidence to this that is also known to our foreign partners.” Jaish al-Islam is behind a long series of terrorist acts, Syromolotov said.

“It is also important to bear in mind that many militants from the Jabhat al-Nusra group, recognized as terrorist by the UN Security Council, which is a branch of the notorious Al Qaeda, enlisted to the ranks of Jaish al-Islam,” said the Russian deputy foreign minister. “The US side, actually not regarding Jaish al-Islam as moderate opposition, sometimes proposes to discuss admitting this organization to the negotiations on the political settlement in Syria,” Syromolotov said. “We don’t agree with this position and tell the Americans about this.”

Barry