Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to media questions at a joint news conference following talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Walid Muallem of Syria, Moscow, November 27, 2015

Ladies and gentlemen,

My colleague, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, and I have held substantial and frank talks. We discussed the situation in Syria and around it and generally what has been happening in the Middle East after the so-called Arab Spring.

We’ve paid particular attention to what the main task is for today – the fight against international terrorism, which is a threat not only to Syria and stability in the Middle East but also a threat of global nature and dimension. The terrorist threat has been concentrated on vast territories in Syria and Iraq. This is the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. We share a vision that it can only be uprooted by avoiding double standards. Countries neighbouring on Syria bear a special responsibility for renouncing these double standards and acting as part of a united antiterrorist front. We see as the height of cynicism any situation where several of these countries pay lip service to their commitment to the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and present themselves as participants in antiterrorist coalitions, while in fact playing a game of their own, one in which terrorists are actually reserved the role of unofficial allies.

We have confirmed our assessments of the Turkish authorities’ actions that have led to the crash of a Russian bomber. These assessments were expanded upon in a detailed manner by President Vladimir Putin in his remarks at a joint news conference with President François Hollande of France yesterday. We have increasingly more questions about Ankara’s true intentions and the extent of its real concern with the elimination of terrorism, specifically in Syria, and the normalisation of the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic.

As President Vladimir Putin repeatedly reaffirmed, the fight against the terrorist challenge requires a consolidated effort by the entire world community in confronting this evil, reserving due respect for norms of international law and the central role of the UN Security Council. In this context, as President Putin confirmed at the news conference with President Hollande yesterday, we are fully prepared to take into account the legitimate concerns and interests of countries with a stake in fighting terrorism and ready to accept various forms of a coalition, interaction, and coordination so as not to create discomfort for anyone. The ball is in the court of our partners, including members of the coalition created by the US last year, but which has failed to achieve tangible results.   

In addition to discussing the eradication of terrorism, which is our main task in Syria and a goal towards which the Russian and Syrian military have been working in a coordinated manner, we also talked about ways to promote the political process in Syria. We pointed out that the essence of the agreements reached in Vienna by the International Syria Support Group is that any reforms, agreements and processes in Syria can be only implemented by Syrians, who alone have the right to decide their future without any external interference. We have reaffirmed that this cannot be done without a representative and inclusive intra-Syrian dialogue between the Syrian government and a wide range of patriotic opposition, and any agreements must be based on mutual accord.

External players, above all those who are members of the International Syria Support Group, should help create conditions for this dialogue. The main task for the external players at this stage is to implement the decisions of the second Vienna meeting on November 14 as soon as possible. The decisions boil down to determining who is who in Syria.

The first agreement provides for forming and coordinating the list of terrorist organisations that will be barred from any talks and which will not be included in the future ceasefire regime. When this list is formed and approved by the decision of the UN Security Council, it will be easier to understand who are terrorists and who are healthy patriotic opposition, willing to negotiate with the government on the principles that have been outlined by the international community and include respect for the unity, territorial integrity and sovereignty of Syria and the rights of all its residents irrespective of their ethnic, confessional or any other characteristics.

It’s absolutely clear, as I told my Syrian colleague and, before him, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and other colleagues, that the process will not progress effectively without a coordinated list of terrorist organisations and a list of delegates from the opposition.

In addition to providing direct assistance to Syria in its fight against terrorism and facilitating the start of a political process, Russia also sends humanitarian aid to Syria, including wheat, and has increased its special-purpose contributions to Syrians through UN agencies, in particular the UN World Food Programme.

We also touched upon bilateral relations, which Foreign Minister Walid Muallem discussed in detail with Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, co-chair of the Intergovernmental Trade and Economic Commission, the day before.

We will keep working to help bring closer the time when Syria will rid itself of terrorists, restore national unity and enter the path of economic recovery. We will do our best to encourage the international community to provide energetic assistance to these efforts.

I’d like to once again express gratitude to our Syrian friends for ensuring the safety of Russian nationals and Russian offices, which continue to operate effectively in Syria despite the difficult situation.

Our special thanks to the Syrian colleagues and friends who helped our special operations forces save the navigator of the downed Russian plane.

Question (to both ministers): Some countries are pursuing calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down. How would you comment on this?

Sergey Lavrov: As for the fact that some countries continue pressing for President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation as a necessary condition for a settlement, we have already said all that needs to be said. Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin again reiterated that it’s up to the Syrian people to decide who will govern the Syrian state. By definition, there can be no such thing as external selection commissions for picking candidates to suit this or that country.

As you know, it’s not uncommon for our Western and other partners to preach democracy, when, irrespective of the state of their own countries, they step back more and more often from democratic principles, including the key principle: democracy is the power of the people. Some time ago, they wanted to “tear” Kosovo from Serbia and proclaimed Kosovo an independent state without any referendum or expression of people’s will. Now, they want to admit Montenegro into NATO. The opposition – rallies with thousands of protesters – is demanding a referendum on the issue – but no, they don’t want it. Lots of similar examples can be cited. In some cases, an election is allegedly held, while in fact candidates have “preliminary consultations” with foreign sponsors, and then, even if an election meets the terms of the above sponsors, the results can still be twisted and revised. There are lots of examples, including near Syria. We have seen this happen before and we won’t allow any backtracking from democratic principles.

Question (addressed to Walid Muallem): My question is about the downed Russian plane. Can you comment on a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey would consider the destruction of its aircraft in the skies over Syria by Russian Air Defence Forces to be an act of aggression?

Sergey Lavrov (adds after Walid Muallem): Regarding the question to Mr Muallem about the actions of the Turkish side, I would like to draw your attention to recent statements by Turkish President Erdogan.

First, he usurped the right to exclusiveness when he said that if a Turkish plane were downed in Syrian air space, it would be seen as an act of aggression. Well, so it turns out that Turkey can do this, it can shoot down any aircraft that has allegedly entered the air space of the Republic of Turkey for even a few seconds, without warning. I believed that only one country is insisting on this exclusiveness and immunity from international law. It now appears that now there are at least two such countries.

Two other statements by Turkish President Erdogan are much more revealing. Surely, you have heard one of them: He said that the Turkish Air Force didn’t know whose plane it was, and that if they had known that it’s a Russian plane they would have acted differently. In another statement, however, he said that if Turkish air space was violated again, they would react the same way. I hope everyone understands the arbitrary nature of this two-sided position.

As we’ve said, Russia is extremely concerned with the mounting terrorist threat in Turkey. This is directly linked with the security of the Russian Federation and our citizens. Militants are moving in various directions via Turkey. To our great regret, the Turkish authorities are reluctant to cooperate on matters concerning Russian citizens, to put it mildly.

I’d like to mention some examples and statistics. In 2015, we issued 17 official diplomatic notes requesting information from Turkish authorities about Russian citizens, suspected terrorists, arrested by the Turkish side. We wanted to receive information about these people who are suspected of terrorism and meet with them. We have received no response whatsoever to all these requests.

This year, over 200 Russian citizens were deported from Turkey for illegal activity. Despite our agreements, Russia was promptly informed about the deportation of just seven people in this category. Most of them were deported to other countries, besides Russia, including those implementing unfriendly policies with regard to Russia. Thus, Russia has decided to suspend visa-free travel between Russia and Turkey starting January 1, 2016. These threats are real, not exaggerations. We responsibly inform Russian citizens about this.

Question: Yesterday, Serbia’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said you would probably meet with the Turkish Foreign Minister in Belgrade. Are there any new plans?

Sergey Lavrov: What does Mr Dacic have to do with this?  

Question (addressed to both ministers): Russia and Syria accuse Turkey of cooperation with ISIS, in particular, of buying oil from it, whereas the US administration has brought similar charges against the Syrian government. Moreover, this week sanctions were introduced against several Russian citizens who allegedly help Syria buy oil from terrorists. Can you comment on Washington’s claims about Damascus’ dealings with terrorists?

Sergey Lavrov (speaking after Walid Muallem): As the saying goes, practice is the best teacher, so let’s talk figures. Many reports in recent years have placed the blame for buying oil from ISIS-seized fields on many sides. We saw the whole picture of the illegal oil business after Russian aircraft started air raids in Syria at the request of President Bashar al-Assad. President Vladimir Putin has talked about this several times, including at a news conference yesterday, and showed highly convincing photographs to his G20 colleagues in Antalya. But the US-led coalition started air raids in Iraq and Syria, without the approval of the Syrian government, more than a year ago. I’m sure that they saw all this, but for some reason they did nothing to stop the illegal trade. Only when the Russian Aerospace Forces came to the region did the bombing of these criminal facilities begin. Of course, it’s hardly a simple coincidence that this has made our Turkish colleagues nervous. The Turkish authorities guard information about their illegal oil deals to the best of their abilities as evidenced by the arrest of two Turkish journalists for reporting on the illegal supplies of Turkish weapons to ISIS terrorists.

My answer is very simple: if the United States is worried that these illegal oil fields can benefit anyone, they must be forced to stop these operations. The US-led coalition should have done this before; it should have eliminated this illegal activity. But the coalition and the United States began doing this only after the Russian air group attacked these facilities. I would even say that our American partners did this with reluctance, so as not to lag behind Russia in the fight against the terrorist infrastructure.

It was Russia who raised the issue at the UN Security Council despite the doubts of its Western partners. As a result, Resolution 2199 was adopted by consensus to prohibit any engagement in direct or indirect trade of oil with ISIS or other terrorist groups. This requirement applies to all countries, who have been encouraged to regularly update the UN on the implementation of this resolution. We have submitted a proposal to the UN Security Council under which the UN Secretary-General would prepare a report within two weeks on the supporters of this illegal ISIS oil industry. We hope this information will be provided to the UN Security Council member countries. Russia has proposed this issue for the open international agenda many times and expects to have a completely transparent answer. Considering US Secretary of State John Kerry’s concern about the various aspects of this issue, I hope our American colleagues will support our initiative and see to it that a resolution to this effect is adopted and the required information provided to the UN Security Council and the international community.

Question (addressed to both ministers): This morning, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius made a statement about the need for a ground operation against ISIS in Syria. He did not rule out the participation of the Syrian army, the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the Kurds, and the Arab forces from Sunni countries. Have there been any direct contacts between the governments of Syria and France regarding the possibility of a ground operation? What do you think about this? Could this decision be the result of yesterday's talks between President Putin and President Hollande?

Sergey Lavrov: When President Putin came up with the idea to establish an effective broad-based international coalition against ISIS and other terrorist organisations, we clarified our approach in late summer-early September. We said that the idea is to unite the efforts of all those who are truly fighting ISIS and other terrorists on the ground and in the air.

We expressly mentioned the Syrian government army, the armed patriotic Syrian opposition units, and the Kurdish militia, and called for all those groups fighting terrorists on the ground to coordinate their actions with coalition members from other countries that provide their air forces to assist in eradicating ISIS. Thus, the Kurds and the armed Syrian opposition were part of our initiative to establish a front against ISIS from day one. Foreign Minister Fabius’ proposal is in line with our initiative, which President Putin reiterated when he spoke at the UN General Assembly. Importantly, we should clarify the situation regarding the FSA. We want the patriotic opposition forces to participate in this work. We have been hearing about the Free Syrian Army for a long time now, but it’s important to identify the specific units operating under this name. We sincerely asked our Western partners and partners in the region to help us establish contacts with such groups, if they are really interested in fighting terrorism. As President Putin said during yesterday’s news conference, contacts with some of these groups have been established, and we are starting to work with them. We are interested in coordinating the actions of all those who want to drive the terrorists out of Syria and destroy ISIS altogether. These forces include the Syrian army, the FSA, and all other patriotic armed units, including, of course, the Kurds. Now, it is for all of our colleagues, including the US-led coalition, to agree to work on a common anti-terrorist basis. 

I think that yesterday's talks between presidents Putin and Hollande led to a fairly modest, but concrete step in this direction. Notably, at a meeting of the Russian and French presidents on October 2 in Paris, where a Normandy format meeting to discuss Syria was held, the French leader already said that engaging the Syrian government army and the Syrian opposition forces in concerted anti-terrorist efforts would be the right thing to do. We are willing to do so.

We are again back to a key issue that determines further progress in fighting terrorism and establishing the intra-Syrian political process. I’m referring to drawing up a list of terrorist organisations, which are our common enemy. We have circulated our concrete proposals listing various extremist groups among the Vienna process participants. Of course, our Syrian colleagues have them, too, and we are aware of the position of Damascus.

We will push to have all of these proposals taken into account when agreeing on a single list in the International Syria Support Group. I want to make it publicly known that under any circumstances it is absolutely imperative for us to include in this list the group that shot our pilot after he ejected from the plane and was parachuting to earth, defenseless. Without including this group of bandits, who brutalised his body, on the terrorist list, we won’t be able to move forward. The same applies to those who killed our special units soldier who was part of a rescue mission, whose helicopter came under attack.

Speaking about President Hollande’s anti-terrorist mission, I want to point out an important initiative, which he communicated during his visit to Washington prior to his visit to Moscow. He suggested taking concrete measures to block the border between Turkey and Syria. We strongly support this idea, and we are willing to agree on practical steps to do so, of course, in a concerted effort with the Syrian government. We are convinced that by shutting down the border we will largely be able to resolve the problem of eradicating terrorism in Syria. We hope that this initiative by President Hollande will be implemented as part of our joint work, including in the International Syria Support Group.