Russia alarmed by developments in Iraq - Lavrov
MOSCOW. June 12 (Interfax) - Russia is concerned about the latest developments in Iraq, where Islamists have lately taken control of a number of cities, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We are greatly alarmed by what is happening in Iraq. We warned long ago that the affair that the Americans and the Britons stirred up there wouldn't end well," Lavrov told journalists on Thursday.
The U.S. president declared the victory of democracy in Iraq 11 years ago, and since then "the situation has been deteriorating at an exponential rate," he said.
"Iraq's unity has been called into question. Terrorism is rampant there because the occupation forces virtually paid no attention to the internal political processes and didn't facilitate national dialogue but were pursuing exclusively their own interests," he said.
"For internal political reasons, the U.S. withdrew their forces when the Iraqi security forces had been far from being prepared to enforce law and order on the entire territory of the country," he said.
