Putin lambastes Western support for terrorists in Syria

Sochi, SANA-Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a trenchant diatribe against the West during his speech at the 11th Valdai discussion club in the Russian city of Sochi, accusing it of stoking conflicts worldwide .

“The Westerners”, he said, “are in fact fighting outcomes of their own making, and are increasingly paying for this.”

Among a litany of accusations faulting their policies that have gone awry in several parts of the world, Putin said the United States and its allies have provided terrorists in Syria with direct funding and weapons, inciting inflow of mercenaries to that country.

“In Syria, just like in old times, the US and its allies began to provide militants with direct funding and weapons to incite filling of their ranks by mercenaries from different countries,” Putin said.

“Where did the militants get the money, weapons, military experts from? How did the IS [Islamic State] turn into a mighty, de facto army group,” he said.

He also criticized the West’s efforts to tackle terrorism amid the recent fight against the Islamic State, saying that Western countries “turned a blind eye” to terror threats and continued to give their selective support to certain extremists groups in order to attain their own goals.

“By the way, I am constantly surprised that our Western partners make the same mistake over and over again. They once sponsored Islamist extremists that had fought in Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union. Taliban and al-Qaeda originated from these [extremist] movements,” he added.

The dominance of a uni-polar, lopsided world order is not bringing security and stability, the Russian president stated. “This rickety world order has proved inept in resolving international crises such as terrorism and drug-trafficking, and has led to the proliferation of neo-Nazism.”

Manal Ismael

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