GENEVA (Sputnik) — The United States is willing to continue helping the moderate Syrian opposition fight against the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh, banned in Russia), but does not want to see man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS) being used in the region, a State Department official told Sputnik on Friday.
"Our focus now is on deescalating the situation in Syria while continuing to provide support for local forces in Syria who are taking the fight to ISIL, including helping the moderate opposition, who have achieved notable success against ISIL in and around Shaddadi, to continue to build on those gains. We would be very concerned about the presence of man-portable air-defense systems in a volatile environment like Syria," the official said.
"Beyond that, I am not going to read out private conversations with partners or speculate on hypotheticals," he added.
