Russia to keep pounding terrorist groups in Syria - Naryshkin

MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Russia will go ahead with strikes against terrorist groups in Syria, Russian State Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin has said. "Such terrorist organizations as the Islamic State (outlawed in Russia), Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist groups named by the UN Security Council have been excluded from the ceasefire regimen. Strikes against them will continue," Naryshkin said while receiving Egypt’s visiting Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Moscow on Wednesday. Naryshkin said the struggle against international terrorism was a common task of the civilized community. "Russia will be playing one of the key roles in this respect," he said. Naryshkin described as "titanic" Russia’s efforts to restore peace to Syria. "In this context the Russian president made a decision to pull out part of the Russian aerospace group (from Syria)," Naryshkin said. "The way we see it, this step is to boost the political dialogue among all rival groups and all political forces in Syria," he added. As Naryshkin said, Russia in that connection certainly welcomed the beginning of the Geneva talks on the Syrian problem. "For our part we will do our utmost to let the people of Syria make a decision regarding their future," he pointed out. As he dwelt on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, Naryshkin said he could not but state the fact that "such chaos in political, social and economic affairs and the disintegration of government institutions in a number of countries of that region certainly became an effect of ill-considered and harmful policies of those Western countries that had intervened in the internal affairs of the region’s states. Naryshkin said that interference was often accompanied by the use of force in violation of international law and the UN Charter. Read more