Excluding Kurds from Syria political process would lead to country's disintegration - Lavrov
MOSCOW. March 11 (Interfax) - Excluding the Kurds from a political process for settling the Syrian crisis would lead to Syria's disintegration and separatist sentiments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"Forming any provisional government-opposition structure without the Kurds will be a serious infringement on the rights of such a large and important group of Syria's population. Such exclusion of the Kurds from the political process will only feed sentiments within the ranks of the forces that prefer staying not within the framework of Syria, but thinking about some separation," Lavrov told a press briefing in Moscow on Friday after talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The only country that is opposed to including the Kurds in the Syrian settlement process is Turkey, the Russian minister said.
"It is unacceptable to allow the whims of one participant in the Syria support group and its ultimatums to create such risks and threats," Lavrov said.
"The advancement of such sentiments is quite troubling," the minister said.
"I am convinced that everyone perfectly understands this. At least, our American partners, who, like us, are allies of the Kurds, including the Democratic Union Party, in the battlefield, have such an understanding. What counts most is that such an understanding should also be accompanied by the political will to influence one of their allies," Lavrov said.