MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti), Daria Chernyshova – Only joint efforts of the international community and major global powers can pave the way for the victory over the Islamic State (IS) and any other strategy is useless, former Russian Ambassador Veniamin Popov told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
“We can defeat this evil [IS] by collective efforts only. Everything that is being done now is more of a facade,” Popov told RIA Novosti.
“The collective efforts envisage Syria and Iran first of all, as well as Russia, China, India, the other BRICS, and so on. But at the moment the world is splitting based on other principles. The West is waging a fight with China – for Hong Kong, we [Russia] are distracted by Ukraine. Thus, the United States is ensuring its leadership,” Popov continued.
More than 60 nations have declared their support the US-led anti-Islamic State (IS) coalition which seeks to contain the spread of Islamist insurgency in the Middle East. Russia, China and India are not part of the coalition.
“As for us [Russia], we help Assad, we have urgently delivered several planes to Iraqi government so that they can face the advance, as well as weapons,” Popov told RIA Novosti.
Popov also pointed out that at the start of the conflict in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned Washington that a new seat of extremism was forming there.
“He suggested combining the efforts. But the US said it was moderate opposition, very nice one that we can work with. And this moderate opposition has then showed itself – there is no moderate opposition,” Popov pointed out, adding that the only opposition in Syria that could be deemed moderate is the Free Syrian Army which now is scarcely represented.
The ambassador highlighted that it was the Free Syrian Army that sold the information about American journalist James Foley’s crossing the Turkish border into IS territory for $50,000.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), is an extremist group that has captured large parts of Syria and Iraq and proclaimed a caliphate on the territories under its control.
For the last three weeks, IS militants have besieged Kobani, one of the largest towns in the Kurdish region bordering Turkey. More than 400 people have died in clashes between IS and Kurdish fighters in Kobani, also known as Ayn al-Arab, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Some 200,000 refugees have crossed into Turkey to flee the IS threat.
UN envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura called on the international community to help prevent Kobani from falling under the control of the militants.
