NATO’s decision to join the US-led coalition active in Syria is a formal "act of moral support," Russian State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs Leonid Slutsky said.
NATO’s decision is just an "act of moral support as NATO does not plan to participate in military operations." "In fact, NATO countries have been members of the coalition from the beginning, so NATO’s decision is no more than a political formality,"Slutsky added.
State Duma Committee for Foreign Affairs said that "Russia’s Aerospace Force is by far the only foreign military force which is legally deployed to Syria, as it has been fighting international terrorism in the country upon a request by the Syrian authorities." "Our goal is to eliminate the hotbed of terrorism in Syria without interfering in its political order," TASS cited him as saying.
Yesterday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the alliance’s decision to join the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Until recently, NATO was not a member of the coalition but provided assistance to it as a partner.
