Lavrov confirms Moscow's interest in coordinating actions in Syria with U.S.-led coalition
MUSCAT (Oman). Feb 3 (Interfax) - Russia reaffirms its interest in coordinating anti-terrorism efforts with the U.S.-led coalition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday.
"The only problem that exists is the deficit of legitimacy in the actions of the U.S.-led coalition: they have authorization from the Iraqi authorities but have no such from the Syrian authorities," he told reporters in Muscat.
"We will remain pragmatic, however. We are still interested in coordinating efforts with the U.S.-led coalition not only in the issue of coordination of incident prevention mechanisms (...) but also, which is even more important, in the practical and systematic coordination of the actions of those who operate 'on the ground', the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Air Force of the U.S.-led coalition," the Russian minister said.
According to Lavrov, claims from the U.S.-led coalition that Russia delivers strikes on the wrong targets, for instance, on the civilian population, are not evidenced by any facts.