DOHA (Sputnik) — The Russian and US positions on the issue of supporting Syrian militants still differ, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday.
"We told our US colleagues that the most important is, that up until now all examples of US instructors training militants, the so-called moderate opposition, on the territory of neighboring countries, resulted in the vast majority of those militants ending up on the extremists' side," Lavrov said during a press conference, commenting on his meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry.
"Our position on this matter was clearly stated. I don't believe I was able to sway the US position, but in this issue we obviously differ," Lavrov added.
Moscow believes that Washington's statements, claiming that the Syrian opposition trained by the US would be protected by the coalition aviation, are counterproductive, Lavrov said.
"We are providing military-technical assistance to the Syrian government to help fight this threat…We have plenty of reasons to believe that without our support the territories captured by this terrorist group would have counted hundreds or even thousands kilometers more," Lavrov said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday that his meeting with the former leader of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces did not signify the change in Moscow's position on the settlement of the Syrian crisis.
Earlier in the day, Lavrov met Ahmed Moaz Khatib on the sidelines of his working visit to Qatar. The sides discussed a peaceful settlement to the Syrian crisis.
"This meeting does not mean any changes in our approach," Lavrov said during a joint press conference with his Qatari counterpart Adel Jubeir.
"This meeting reflects our principled policy to work with all representatives of Syrian people without exceptions — with the government side and with the opposition groups alike, without picking anyone among the oppositioners whom we prefer," Lavrov said.
Syria has been in a state of a civil war since March 2011, with government forces battling various militant groups. According to UN figures, over 220,000 people in Syria were killed and over 11 million displaced.
The United States has been supporting what they refer to as "moderate" Syrian rebels with financial aid and supplies of small arms. In addition, a US-led coalition has been bombing Islamist positions in Syria since autumn 2014. There have been no reports of direct engagement between US forces and the Syrian army.
Russia has warned against supporting anti-government forces, stressing the need for dialogue in Syria.
