A senior Russian diplomat warned Syrian President about his plans to recapture all of Syria, saying that he must follow Kremlin's advice in order to end deadly conflict in the country.
"Russia has invested very seriously in this crisis, politically, diplomatically, and now also in the military sense. Therefore we of course would like that Bashar Al-Assad take account of that," Moscow' envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said in an interview with Russian newspaper Konnersant on Thursday, according to Middle East Monitor.
"We shouldn't assign too much importance to some of the statements, dramatize them... This is my personal point of view. I heard on TV President Assad's statement. It obviously contradicts Russia's diplomatic efforts. There is the Vienna process, the latest agreements with the International Syria Support Group reached in Munich that include the ceasefire, the cessation of military activity in the foreseeable future. We are working on this now," Churkin added, according to RBTH.
The Russian warning comes as a response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's recent statements regarding recapturing all of Syria.
"Regardless of whether we can do that or not, this is a goal we are seeking to achieve without any hesitation. It makes no sense for us to say that we will give up any part," Assad told AFP news agency last week.
The embattled Syrian President is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia began airstrikes in Syria at locations of Islamic State group and Al-Nusra front on Sept. 30 last year.
More than 220,000 people were killed and millions displaced since the start of Syrian conflict in 2011.
