MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Syria has been mired in a civil war since 2011 as government forces loyal to Assad fight several opposition and radical Islamist militant groups, including the Nusra Front and Islamic State (ISIL).
Since the beginning of the Syria civil war, the United States and some of its allies have supported the moderate Syrian opposition while calling for Assad's resignation, while Russia recognized Assad as the only legitimate Syrian authority.
Russia has been providing Syria with humanitarian aid and military equipment.
“The Russian side, and most important President [Vladimir] Putin has emphasized this several times that solving Syria’s fate by third countries is impossible. Syria’s fate may be decided by the Syrian people, and artificially excluding the legal and legitimate president of the Syrian Arab Republic from the process of settling [the crisis] is also impossible,” Peskov told journalists.
