Terrorism may become new type of war if situation in Syria, other hot spots not stabilized - Medvedev
MUNICH. Feb 13 (Interfax) - If the situation in Syria and other hot spots is not stabilized, terrorism will grow into a new type of war involving the entire world, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
"We believe sincerely that, if we do not normalize the situation in Syria and other hot spots, terrorism will become a new type of war, into which the entire world will be dragged," Medvedev said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
Moreover, Medvedev said, terrorism might become not just a type of war but "a way to resolve interethnic and interreligious conflicts and a method of quasi-governance."
"Just imagine a string of countries governed by terrorists by way of terror. Is this the 21st century?" he said.
Medvedev said he was sure everyone understands today that terrorism is not a problem of individual countries.
"We in Russia said about this two decades ago. We tried to persuade our partners that this stems not only from interethnic or interreligious disagreements," Medvedev said.
"ISIL's ideology is based absolutely not on a struggle for Islamic values but only on a beastly instinct to ruin and kill," he said.
Considering this, Medvedev called terrorism a civilizational problem.
"It's either we or they. Without any nuances or halftones. Without any justification of their actions. Without dividing them into friends and foes, or into extremists and presumably moderate ones," he said.