Lavrov: U.S. exhibits double standards in fighting terrorism, doesn't listen to Russia
MOSCOW. Sept 24 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on U.S. partners to fight terrorists always and everywhere and to avoid double standards demonstrated in the division of terrorists into "good" and "bad".
"If we fight terrorism, we should be fighting it always and everywhere. If you divide terrorists into good ones who are helping you topple a leader disliked by you personally although he is an elected official, he is legitimate and he heads a UN member country, then you turn a blind eye to it [terrorism]," Lavrov said in an interview with Channel Five before meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in New York City.
According to this logic, "Bad terrorists are those who kill Americans," the Russian foreign minister added.
"Why didn't the Americans see that threat before? Why did they exhibit double standards in the fulfillment of this task, the task of fighting terrorism, and ignore our appeals for the pooling of efforts and helping the Syrian government together with the moderate patriotic opposition form a single front against terrorists?" Lavrov wondered.
"Now that the Islamic State [of Iraq and the Levant] has been branded No1 enemy of the United States, we would like to remind you that these same people gained strength and got organized, began to receive strong financial and material support from abroad when the Libyan regime was being replaced and attempts to do the same were being made in Syria," the Russian foreign minister indicated.
"No holds were barred when the Americans and the Europeans declared their support for the fight against anti-people regimes. And every time we called their attention to the fact that lots of extremists and terrorists were fighting against those anti-people regimes, they told us that would pass. They would deal with it after the regime was overthrown," Lavrov recalled.
"For all the tragic nature of the situation, the Americans were shaken only after television had shown abominable videos of the execution of American journalists," the Russian minister said.
"This is impermissible, this is inhumane, these people must be fought at any cost. But they were not listening," Lavrov said, adding that "now the Syrian Arab Republic is actually crawling with terrorists."
The UN Security Council will speak discuss foreign terrorist fighters on Wednesday.
