Tokyo Wants Moscow to Continue Playing Major Role in Syrian Crisis Settlement

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Tokyo wants Moscow to keep on playing a constructive role in resolving the crisis in Syria, Deputy Press Secretary for the Japanese Foreign Ministry Masato Ohtaka said on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the Russian and Japanese foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Fumio Kishida respectively, held talks in Moscow. The sides discussed the Syrian conflict, among other issues.

"We are very concerned with the humanitarian situation in this region, I think that we all know that there is a need for a political solution, for the normalization of the situation in Syria… We would like to see Russia continuing to play a constructive role in this regard," Ohtaka told reporters.

He said that the Japanese side acknowledged the importance of Russia's role in the Syrian crisis settlement.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with government forces fighting the Syrian opposition groups striving to overthrow President Bashar Assad. In parallel, Damascus has to counter numerous extremist groups, in particular, the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh), terrorist group outlawed in Russia.

The coalition has been conducting airstrikes on terrorists' positions in Syria without either UN Security Council approval, or Damascus' consent. In turn, Russia is behind a separate aerial campaign in Syria, which was started in September 2015 following a request from Assad.