Russia has called upon the United Nations Security Council to designate two armed groups in Syria as terrorist organizations and place sanctions on them. "The reason for such a move was the information that these groups, which are waging a war in Syria, are closely connected to terrorist organizations, first of all with ISIS [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda," Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin claimed in a statement on Tuesday. The two groups in question are Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham, two Islamist groups who are not, unlike ISIS and the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra, exempt from the fragmenting Syrian ceasefire implemented last February 27. However a senior Security Council diplomat told Reuters that this move on the part of the Kremlin was "unhelpful" and their "way of trying to divide the opposition." Russia has warned Syrian opposition groups against cooperating with these groups warning that they too would be targeted by Russian and/or Syrian military forces and would no longer be protected under the terms of the ceasefire. While ISIS never cooperates with other groups who do not subjugate themselves under their command (which is why ISIS and Nusra have fought each other despite their similar ideologies) Nusra has been known to coordinate with other opposition groups for the ad-hoc purpose of fighting a mutual enemy, the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
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