Sergey Lavrov: The US is trying to divide Syria
Lavrov and his Turkish and Iranian counterparts discussed how to end Syria’s war [Grigory Dukor/Reuters]
Russian foreign minister says US, UK and France ignoring international law after recent missile attacks in Syria.
Lavrov made the accusations on Saturday while meeting his Turkish and Iranian counterparts in Moscow following their talks on the seven-year Syrian war, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
The meeting was meant to prepare the groundwork for the ninth round of Astana talks to be held next month in Kazakhstan, which will focus on political and humanitarian issues.
Russia, Iran and Turkey see themselves as guarantor states in negotiations between the Syrian opposition and government.
They say the Astana process, aimed at ending the violence in Syria, is the only way of reducing tensions.
‘Reformatting Middle East’
At the meeting, all three ministers agreed Syria must remain a sovereign and whole entity.
American statements about supporting the territorial integrity of Syria “are only words that, apparently, cover plans for reformatting the Middle East and plans for dividing Syria into parts”, Lavrov said, adding Russia, Iran and Turkey will work together to ensure that won’t happen.
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