NEW YORK. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya has said that Western attempts to label the terror groups operating in Syria as the moderate opposition are unacceptable.
"The armed-confrontation phase of the Syrian crisis is effectively over. The forces that are genuinely interested in a political settlement have joined this process," Nebenzya told the UN Security Council on Thursday before a vote on a Russian-Chinese draft resolution on Idlib.
"The only ones who are continuing the war, with a view to destroying the Syrian state and forcing the civilian population to suffer, are terrorists," he said.
"Attempts to cover them up and present them as the de-radicalized opposition are unacceptable," Nebenzya said.
The "humanitarian troika's" (Germany, Belgium, and Kuwait) ignoring the need to fight terrorists was the watershed that prevented Russia from voting for the Western draft resolution on Idlib, he said.