News-Middle East-Russia: The West had openly used terrorists to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Russia helped the war-torn country preserve its statehood, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

When real terrorists from the Daesh terrorist group and its affiliates “were on the threshold of the Syrian capital city, when terrorists were about to seize power in Syria, the West was watching it quite calmly,” Lavrov said on Monday, TASS news agency reported.

According to the top Russian diplomat, Russia has created conditions for a political process in Syria, but it is not its fault that the process is slackening. 

“We have created conditions for a political settlement process [in Syria], which is currently slackening not through our fault. Nevertheless, it is underway,” he stated.