Moscow: Moscow is concerned by Al Qaida’s growing interest in Syria, as it fears the international terrorist organisation is seeking to turn the country into its Mideast base, the Russian foreign ministry said.
Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, head of Iraq’s Al Qaida affiliate, has announced that Jabhat Al Nusra, a militant group fighting alongside the Syrian rebels, is part of the terrorist organisation, the ministry said in a statement on its website Thursday.
“Russia strongly and unequivocally condemns terrorism in any of its forms and manifestations,” the statement said.
Moscow is also concerned by the possibility of the Syrian conflict spilling over to neighbouring Lebanon, the ministry said.
Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service Director Viktor Ivanov said earlier on Thursday about 20,000 mercenaries fighting in Syria are financed by the proceeds of Afghan drug trafficking, but did not provide any evidence to back his claims.
Syria, meanwhile, demanded that the UN slap sanctions on a jihadist group after it pledged allegiance to Al Qaida, as the opposition accused regime forces of “savage” killings in the country’s south.
The demand by Damascus that the UN class Al Nusra Front as an Al Qaida-linked group came as G8 foreign ministers meeting in London said they were “appalled” at the spiralling violence but made no mention of supplying arms to the rebels.
In a letter to the United Nations, Syria’s foreign ministry said it “expects the Security Council to fulfil its role and preserve global security,” and class the Al Nusra Front as an Al Qaida-linked group, state media reported.
A sanctions regime was introduced by the UN to punish individuals and entities linked to Al Qaida, freezing assets, banning travel and imposing an embargo on arms destined for the terror network.
In Washington, President Barack Obama says the situation in Syria has reached, in his words, a “critical juncture.”
Obama commented on Thursday in the Oval Office alongside UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who said Syria remains a “most troubling situation.”
Also Thursday, Obama freed up money for the first round of direct nonlethal US assistance for Syria’s armed opposition. The president signed a declaration directing up to $10 million to provide food and medical kits to help the rebels and civilians.
Secretary of State John Kerry had promised the aid in February as part of a $60 million package of direct assistance for the rebels.
The next phase of US assistance to the rebels is expected to include body armour, night-vision goggles and other military-style equipment, while stopping short of providing weapons to the opposition.
With the death toll rising and no end in sight to the violence, the G8 foreign ministers urged greater “humanitarian” assistance for those caught up in a conflict that is now in its third year.
In a statement issued after two days of talks, the ministers “expressed deep concerns about the increasing human tragedy of the conflict in Syria”.
“They were appalled that more than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict and that there are now more than a million Syrian refugees registered by the UNHCR in neighbouring countries, and more than two million internally displaced persons in Syria,” they said.
