ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Continuing on in his war of words with Russia, UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond accused Moscow Wednesday of trying to establish an Alawite state for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, where most of that Syrian minority live.
"Is Russia really committed to a peace process or is it using the peace process as a fig leaf to try to deliver some kind of military victory for Assad that creates an Alawite mini state in the northwest of Syria?" Hammond said to reporters in Rome, according to Reuters.
"There has to be a limit to the amount of time that the Russians can sit at the negotiating table posing as sponsors of the political track while at the same time bombing the people who we believe have to be the future of Syria," he argued.
When Hammond suggested that Russia's bombing of other opposition groups in Syria on Assad's behalf actually aided Islamic State (ISIS), Russia accused him of spreading "dangerous disinformation."
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded to Hammond's claims arguing that, "To make such accusations is not logical, it is not correct. It contradicts the essence of those efforts that Russia is making in Syria. Russia is making rather massive and consistent efforts to help the Syrians in their fight against international terrorism."
Before the Russian intervention four months ago Assad's opponents were closing in on Latakia after taking over the neighboring province of Idlib last May and seizing territory in Latakia's north.
However, Russian air power has bolstered the Syrian military and its allied militia. Just last week they managed to recapture the last opposition-held town in Latakia, Rabia, which they did with Russian air support.
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