John Kirby took the US State Department spokesman’s office after a resignation of Jen Psaki, who became famous for getting off the beaten diplomatic track and frequent slips of the tongue. Unlike Jen Psaki, Kirby, being the first professional soldier in the State Department in many years, is considered an intellectual. He was already conspicuous by his blunt anti-Russian rhetoric while being the head of the press service of the Pentagon, but the recent statements of the official representative of the State Department perplexed both the Russian military and Russian diplomats.
Speaking about the development of the situation around Syria, Kirby predicted: ‘’The extremists and extremist groups will continue to use the vacuum of power, which exists in Syria to expand its operations, which will include, without doubt, the attack against Russian interests, perhaps even against Russian cities, and Russia will continue to send home the military in bags for bodies, and they will continue to waste resources – even, perhaps, more planes "
Moscow responded not immediately - there was hope that Kirby’s statement would be disavowed due to its inappropriateness, inconsistency to the diplomatic norms and norms of humanism. But that did not happen.
Yesterday, an official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, responded to her American counterpart: ‘’This statement has been made by a person who had a long military career in the past. When people resort to such cynicism and use such a tone when they talk about their colleagues, one wonders what will come next. "
Commenting Kiriby’s words about the vacuum of power, Zakharova said: "It is Washington and its regional allies who demand that the legitimately elected Syrian President step down. If Washington thinks the current vacuum is dangerous, what would happen if the legitimately elected president and government ceded their positions? "
In fact, Kirby blames Russia for the growing activity of extremists in Syria, although it is the United States who has been consistently presenting these extremists as moderate armed opposition. "Who did Mr Kirby have in mind when he said that extremist activity would become increasingly more violent? Was he talking about the self-same opposition, which Washington is patronising? I would like to remind you that the United States has publicly pledged to bring to reason these opposition forces, with which Washington has maintained direct or indirect interaction all along, as we can see now,’’ Zakharova said.
According to her, in fact, the above statement by the US State Department spokesperson is nothing other than a call to action issued to the radicals. "Washington’s current actions and the public stance in the media environment adopted by the US government target not so mush state-to-state relations as they do the relations between the peoples of our two countries. ... Statements coming out of the US Department of State, the White House and especially law-enforcement agencies show that Washington’s position is inconsistent and that it is on the verge of hysteria regarding the Syrian issue, and in general regarding the situation in the Middle East and North Africa,’’ Zakharova said.
The Russian Defense Ministry estimated Kirby’s words that in case of the continuation of the civil war in Syria, the terrorists will strike the cities of Russia, as a recognition that the Syrian ‘opposition’ is the US-controlled international terrorist organization. The Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson, Igor Konashenkov, noted that Russian military know, where the hidden ‘experts’ engaged in the operational planning of the militant operations are exactly in Syria. "We are fully prepared to continue the dialogue with the American side ... However, even the hints of a threat to our troops and to the Russian citizens should be excluded from this dialogue,’’ Konashenkov said.
Yesterday late in the evening by MST, John Kirby backed off a little bit. He urged not to сonsider his words as a threat to Russia. According to Kiriby, he was speaking about the consequences: "The consequences will be worse, there will be more bloodshed. There are Russian troops in this war, not US troops.’’
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In some way or another, the Russian Foreign Ministry has recommended the Russians being abroad to "exercise reasonable precautions" on September 30th. This day marks a year since the beginning of the Russian military operation in Syria.
