BERLIN (Sputnik) — The so-called moderate opposition in Syria should stop cooperating with militant group Jabhat Fatah al Sham (formerly known as the Nusra Front), German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Tuesday.
"A clear disassociation from Nusra is required, in verifiable deeds and not just in words," the foreign minister said in Berlin, as quoted by the German Foreign Ministry's website.
In a statement released on September 25, the foreign ministers of France, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the EU foreign policy chief reaffirmed their stance that Jabhat Fatah al Sham, al Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, is a terrorist organization. The statement also urged armed groups fighting in Syria to cease all collaboration with the extremists.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011. The conflict is between government forces of President Bashar Assad, so-called moderate Syrian opposition groups and terrorist groups, including the Islamic State and the Nusra Front, both outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
