RT – February 19, 2018: US troops must immediately shut down their zone of control in southern Syria in the area of Al-Tanf, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested when asked what can be done to further help the Syrian peace settlement.
Lavrov is referring to an area on Syria’s border with Jordan and Iraq, which the US declared to be under its protection last year despite being in the country of Syria illegally. (BattleForWorld: What totalitarian brazenness, to penetrate into a sovereign country without permission.) Also in the area-zone is the Rukban refugee camp. And the facility from observation is being used by radical militants, including members of UN-designated terrorist group known best by its former name Al-Nusra Front, to recover and raid other parts of Syria, Lavrov highlighted at the Valdai Club conference on the Middle East in Moscow. The US is turning a blind eye under the disguise of protection concealing such abuses.
Lavrov continues:
“Inside the Al-Tanf zone, which the Americans unilaterally declared under their protection, and inside the refugee camp jihadists are regularly reported to recover strength. On several occasions they conducted raids from there into other territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. This zone must be shut down immediately,” the Russian minister said.
“Our colleagues from the UN for some reason are hesitant to say that humanitarian convoys cannot get into this US-controlled area because the US would not guarantee their safety,” Lavrov added. “Instead they focus attention on the humanitarian situation in Idlib or Eastern Ghouta.”
The Americans “in the territories they patronize east of the Euphrates River and all the way to the state border with Iraq create governing bodies which are designed by intention to have no links with Damascus,” he pointed out.
“This is what we see in Syria, this is what we see in Yemen, and even the latest developments around the Palestinian issue, including Washington’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s exclusive capital, are to a large extent caused by the very same anti-Iranian bias,” Lavrov explained. “Both attitudes pose a risk of further damaging the situation in the region, which is already very pitiful.”
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Plane crash kills 71 near Moscow: This is what is known about the disaster
RT – February 18, 2018: Saratov Airlines’ Antonov An-148 jet carrying 65 passengers and six crew crashed after take-off outside Moscow. As salvage efforts are underway at the crash site, we sum up everything we know so far about the deadly accident.
(BattleForWorld: The An-148 passenger plane and its engines is by the Ukrainian company Antonov. This incident is pointing to sabotage [by the USA prodding Ukraine] and the engine is suspect. And a couple days after the crash the engine D-436 used by the plane was ban from being exported to Russia. Very strange.)
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Ukraine bans deliveries of D-436 civil aircraft engines to Russia
TASS – February 19, 2018: Ukrainian authorities have prohibited supplies of D-436 civil aircraft engines to Russia, said Russian Deputy Minister of Industry Oleg Bocharov. The D-436 engines are currently mounted on An-148 airplanes and Be-200 amphibious aircraft.
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Iran plane crash: All 66 people on board feared dead
BBC – February 19, 2018: Sixty-six people are feared to have been killed in a passenger plane crash in the Zagros mountains in Iran. The plane involved is the French-Italian-made ATR 72-500. (BattleForWorld: In what appears to be another sabotage incident, almost equaling the same amount of passengers of the Russian An-148 jet. Some type of rogue force is sending a message to the Russian and the Iranian governments. As always, this feud is not over, because the ones who are attacked are going to even the score.)
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