US training of ex-terrorists in Syria alarming: Russia

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow is concerned by recent reports that the US is training former members of terrorist groups in Syria.

“The information claiming that some US military bases in Syria have started to train militants, including former members of terrorist groups, is … quite concerning,” Lavrov said in an exclusive interview with RT on Monday. He added that anti-terrorist missions should not be used to topple governments or advance one’s own agenda.

“Attempts to profit from anti-terrorist objectives — which should be common, unified and without double standards — are disturbing,” Lavrov pointed out. Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the United States was turning a blind eye to information provided by Moscow about Syrian terrorists traveling to neighboring Iraq in the hope that these militants could be later used to fight against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. He also warned such attempts to use militants for political purposes would raise long-term threats.

On December 16, Russia’s Reconciliation Center for Syria also accused the US of training members of the so-called New Syrian Army, composed of various terrorist groups, at a refugee camp near the town of Shaddadah in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province. The group reportedly comprises remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group, al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, previously known as the al-Nusra Front, and other militant outfits. Daesh terrorists were among the militants initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilise the Syrian government.