“We are conducting active work with the British on the Syrian issue. My contacts, in particular in the Foreign Office, prove that so far this work isn’t very successful because my last meetings that were literally a week ago, when I was speaking with the head of the Foreign Office, we put forward two questions. The first question was in regard to the British actively cooperating with us in showing targets that need to be struck in Syria in order to destroy the Islamic State. Unfortunately, I received a negative response to that. The Brits said they wouldn’t cooperate with us on that,” Yakovenko said on Russia’s Rossiya-24 television channel.
Yakovenko stated that the United Kingdom had "politically limited itself" by not cooperating with Russia.
"My task as an ambassador is to break this trend and I’m finding greater understanding among parliament members, with whom we are actively cooperating," the ambassador stressed, adding that London’s political landscape was not favorable for constructive cooperation.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with the country’s government fighting against opposition factions and militant groups such as the Islamic State.
Russia is counting on bringing Britain into cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State, Alexander Yakovenko said.
“Britain has somewhat politically limited itself by not cooperating with Russia in regard to this issue. My task as an ambassador is to break this trend and I’m finding greater understanding among parliament members, with whom we are actively cooperating,” Yakovenko said on Russia’s Rossiya-24 television channel.
He added that United Kingdom’s current “political landscape is not very favorable for constructive cooperation.”
