By Elena Teslova
MOSCOW (AA) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that the US is "creating a Kurdish quasi-state" in Syria.
He spoke at a news conference in Moscow and said he briefed his Tunisian counterpart, Nabil Ammar, at a meeting Tuesday about the work that Russia, Türkiye and Iran are carrying out within the framework of the Astana format to promote Syrian settlement.
"We emphasized the continuing serious problems in the economy of the Syrian Arab Republic due to total illegitimate Western sanctions, and also because the US, creating a Kurdish quasi-state on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River, are smuggling the Syrian oil and the Syrian grain," he said.
Lavrov said he discussed Palestinian-Israeli settlement with Ammar and indicated that without finding a solution to the conflict, it will be difficult to achieve "long-term improvement of the situation in the entire Middle East region."
Moscow wants to strengthen ties with Tunis, including through expanding economic ties, said Lavrov, who noted that the trade turnover reached $1.2 billion.
"We have separately focused on the prospects of organizing purchases of Russian grain. The first batch has already been delivered to Tunisia," he said.
Ammar called Russia "an important partner," and noted that the two countries have always maintained a good level of relations.
"We cooperate in different fields, and there are no exceptions or obstacles for us to move forward," he said.