MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia’s role in the settlement of the Syrian crisis will be more constructive after the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad, a Palestinian official told Sputnik on Wednesday.
On Tuesday evening, Assad visited Moscow to hold talks with Putin and high-ranking Russian officials.
Barghouti stressed that the West could not accuse Russia of inciting conflict or demand that it halt its military operation.
"Russia is doing what is necessary regarding the Islamic State, something others are not doing. Nobody can blame Russia. You can’t ask someone to do nothing when you’re not doing anything yourself," he added.
He added that Russia deals in Syria "with an issue which is very dangerous, which is ISIS [ISIL]."
The US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL extremists in Syria since 2014 without the approval of either the UN Security Council or Damascus. Earlier this month, Assad claimed that ISIL had expanded its territories, and that the number of insurgents had increased since the beginning of the US-led bombing campaign.
"The Western countries, in particular the United States, have failed in dealing with this matter, so they should not blame others when they have to make the effort to stop the phenomenon that is very dangerous and could affect the whole region," Barghouti pointed out.
Besides anti-ISIL efforts, Moscow has concurrently promoted a political settlement in Syria, hosting two rounds of intra-Syrian talks between representatives of the Syrian government and the country's opposition in 2015.
