In an interview with Sputnik News Agency, al-Muallem said in reply to a question about the tensions between Tehran and Riyadh that the tensions will have an adverse impact on the Syrian crisis settlement, since the Saudis will enhance both military and financial support to terrorists and will attempt to disrupt the Geneva conference.
Al-Muallem stressed that, while pursuing an ambitious goal of reviving the Ottoman Empire and, therefore, letting terrorists pass through Turkish territory on the way to Syria, Turkey’s leaders underestimate the possibility of the extremists’ return to the country.
“The Turkish authorities opened the border to the terrorist groups coming to us from one hundred countries… Erdogan never learned the lesson that these terrorists will come back to him. And his ambition of rebuilding the Ottoman Empire, I tell you frankly it’s an illusion,” al-Muallem said.
The minister stated that Turkey has opened a training camp for the terrorist groups and has been receiving money from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and some other countries to arm them and, subsequently, send to Syria.
“If these neighboring countries, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar implement the Security Council resolution to counter terrorism, 70 percent of our crisis will be finished and the 30 percent I promise you to end before the end of this year,” he stressed.
“We used to produce five years ago around 400,000 barrels of oil, we consume inside Syria some and we export some. Now this oil is stolen by Daesh (ISIS) and sent to Turkey,” the minister added.
Al-Muallem said, “the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura did not give us, during his visit to Damascus, the list of opposition delegations or the list of terrorist groups but he promised to send them immediately when he obtained them.”
Al-Muallem pointed out that the military operation carried out by Russian warplanes against terrorists in Syria is more successful than the US steps in this regard, adding that “we hope that in the case of continued Syrian-Russian cooperation in the fight against terrorism, it will not be the best for us only but also as a self-defense for Russia.”
He affirmed that due to the coordination between Russian Air Force and Syrian Arab Army “we succeeded in achieving triumph in many areas in Syria”.
On 13th of January, al-Muallem affirmed in a press conference in New Delhi that the military cooperation between Syria and Russia to fight terrorism has achieved remarkable results, adding that the battle against terrorism is also Russia’s battle because there are thousands from Chechen fighting alongside ISIS in Syria, IRNA reported.
S/SH