Russian FM Lavrov:

U.S. Actively Encouraging Kurdish Separatism in Syria

Date: 22 January 2018 - 21:51

News ID: ۴۹۲۰۴

MOSCOW (Dispatches) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that U.S. actions in Syria were either a "deliberate provocation" or indicated Washington lacked an understanding of the situation there, RIA news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.
"Washington has actively encouraged and continues to encourage separatist sentiments among Kurds," Lavrov said.
"This is either a lack of understanding of the situation or an absolutely conscious provocation," he added.
Turkey launched the so-called Operation Olive Branch on Saturday in a bid to eliminate the U.S.-backed YPG, which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). The latter has been fighting for an autonomous region inside Turkey since 1984.
The operation was launched days after Washington said it would work with the Kurdish militants to set up a 30,000-strong border force near Turkish soil, a move that infuriated Ankara.
Lavrov separately told Kommersant newspaper in an interview that "unilateral actions” by the United States in Syria have infuriated Turkey.
"Many political scientists are asking why do we care and say that the worst is the best: let the United States prove its inability to find an agreement, (to show) its destructive role in global affairs, let it be in Iran or Syria and where the unilateral actions have already infuriated Turkey,” he said.
A monitor said Monday three days of fighting since Turkey launched the offensive on the northern Syrian region of Afrin have left at least 54 militants dead.
Among them were 26 Kurdish fighters that have controlled the region on the border with Turkey, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Another 19 fighters from the ranks of the pro-Ankara militants who are fighting alongside Turkey were also killed, the monitoring group said, adding that nine more unidentified bodies were found on the battlefield.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister said Monday that the operation was continuing successfully as planned and called for international support for the military campaign.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, however, condemned the incursion, stating that the offensive is part of Ankara's support for Takfiri terrorist groups operating inside the Arab country.
"The brutal Turkish aggression on the Syrian town of Afrin cannot be separated from the Turkish regime's policy from the first day of Syria's crisis, which was essentially built on supporting terrorism and terrorist organizations, whatever their names,” Assad said in statements carried by Syria's official news agency SANA.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the ongoing Operation Olive Branch in Syria's Afrin would be completed "in very short time."