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Russia calls for international aid to rebuild Syria

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AFP Moscow
Last Updated : May 23 2018 | 6:30 PM IST

Senior Russian military officials today called for the United Nations and other international organisations to help rebuild Syrian territory recaptured by government forces, in order to consolidate the "successes" of the military campaign.

"To completely restore the areas that were damaged by military action against terrorist groups in Syria, and the economy of Syria as a whole, the help of all the international community is needed," senior military officer Sergei Rudskoi said at a Moscow briefing.

"We call on the UN and other international organisations to get involved in this process," Rudskoi said.

Russia in 2015 launched a military intervention in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the conflict that has now lasted seven years and cost over 350,000 lives.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned while meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday that Syria needed aid to ensure that refugees return home from Europe.

"We need to depoliticise the process of humanitarian aid and restoration of the Syrian economy," Putin said at a joint press conference with Merkel.

"If Europeans want people to go back to their homes from Europe, they need to remove restrictions on help to Syria that are incomprehensible to us, at least in the territories under control of the Syrian government."

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First Published: May 23 2018 | 6:30 PM IST

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