US Presence in Syria Not Helping Political, Diplomatic Settlement - Kremlin

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The presence of the US forces in Syria does not help the political and diplomatic settlement of the crisis in the Middle Eastern country, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said.

"The presence of the US forces on the Syrian soil does not help reach the political and diplomatic settlement. Of course, the involvement of Washington in the relevant talks under the UN bumbershoot, the harmonious work of the US officials with [UN Envoy for Syria Staffan] de Mistura in the interests of this settlement would contribute to reaching this final goal," Peskov told Russia’s Channel One.

The Kremlin spokesman noted that the main work on the Syrian settlement was focused on the formation of the commission that would rewrite the country’s constitution. Peskov recalled that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed hope for the work on the commission formation to be finalized in the beginning of the next year.

Peskov also spoke about Trump’s recent claim that Moscow, Damascus and Tehran were unhappy with the US forces leaving Syria since they would have to fight the Daesh terrorists without the US troops. The Kremlin spokesman recalled that the US presence in Syria was in violation of international law, adding that in some areas under the US control, there was a humanitarian catastrophe and terrorists were being equipped with weapons.

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The spokesman also recalled that the US forces were "always withdrawing from some places," like Afghanistan and Iraq where the US troops remain stationed for years.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said the US forces would be pulled out from Syria since the Daesh terror group had been defeated there.

Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia.