Russia warns US against more aid for Syria militants

July 1, 2014 in Video by The Manimal

Source: Press TV

Russia has warned the United States against increasing its support for the foreign-backed Syrian opposition.

Earlier, US President Barack Obama’s administration asked Congress for $500 million for the US military to train and equip those armed Syrian oppositionist that the White House calls “moderate.”

In a statement on Monday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized the move as “more than strange,” saying the potential aid would only bolster what the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have declared as being a “caliphate” in parts of Iraq and Syria.

“Given the real situation on the ground, these considerable funds, if allocated, would in fact serve entirely to strengthen the terrorist ‘caliphate’ proclaimed by the ISIL,” the statement said.

It added that the militants have challenged not only rival extremist groups, but also all the countries of the Islamic world.

The US and its Western and regional allies, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have openly supported the militancy in Syria.

The foreign-backed militancy in Syria has also spilled over into neighboring Iraq in recent weeks. On June 10, the ISILTakfiri militants gained control of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Province, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of Baghdad. Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the terrorists

ISIL militants that have overrun parts of Syria, claimed the formation of a so-called Islamic caliphate or state in an audio recording distributed on extremist websites on June 29.

Thousands of Iraqis have been killed by the ISIL and about one million people have been displaced in Iraq since the ISIL launched its bloody campaign. Senior Muslim clerics have condemned the ISIL atrocities, including mass executions and rape.