US airstrikes on Syrian army positions threaten truce

Rasa - Iran has denounced US airstrikes on a Syrian military air base in the Arab country's eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, saying such raids pose a threat to the implementation of the ceasefire meant to end hostilities in the war-hit Arab state.

News ID: 423675

Date: 18 September 2016 - 23:58

RNA - “The American forces’ raid on the Syrian army’s positions will not only fail to help the fight against terrorism and establish stability in the [Arab] country, but is also a threat to the declared ceasefire,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, said on Sunday.

He added that the US attacks also prepared the ground for the Daesh Takfiri militant group, which is explicitly designated in the UN Security Council resolutions as a terrorist outfit, to enhance and intensify its activities.

“The US move which was carried out simultaneously with Daesh terrorist group’s attacks on the [Syrian army’s] positions violates Syria’s independence and national sovereignty,” the Iranian spokesperson added.

He said such airstrikes also show that terrorist groups in Syria are supported by the United States.

Qassemi emphasized that Washington’s move runs counter to international regulations and commitments and duties of the UN members, "particularly one member of the Security Council."

In order to help solve the ongoing crisis in Syria, he urged all sides to refrain from any "injudicious move."

The Russia army said in a statement on Saturday that 62 Syrian soldiers had been killed and a hundred others injured in US airstrikes on an air base near Dayr al-Zawr military airport.

The statement added that two F-16 and two A-10 jets entered Syrian air space from Iraq to carry out the attacks.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry has called on the UN Security Council to condemn the American aggression, and force Washington not to repeat it and to respect Syria's sovereignty plus unity of its land and people.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a strongly-worded statement on Sunday that the strikes were “on the boundary between criminal negligence and direct connivance” with the Takfiri Daesh terrorists.

On September 9, Russia and the United States agreed on a milestone deal on the Syrian crisis after some 13 hours of marathon talks in the Swiss city of Geneva.

The deal, which began on September 12 and was initially agreed to last seven days, calls for increased humanitarian aid for those trapped inside the embattled northwestern city of Aleppo.

Under the terms of the ceasefire agreement, Russian and American fighter jets would launch joint airstrikes and pound the positions of Takfiri terrorist groups in Syria.

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