The US Embassy in Yerevan, responding to the request of the Armenian news agency "Tert.am", has responded to the deployment of Armenian military personnel to Syria and expressed the critical attitude of the US authorities to the Armenian mission in the Arab country.

"We recognize the desire of other nations to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Syria and we share concerns about the protection of religious minorities in the Middle East. However, we do not support joint activities with the Syrian armed forces, regardless of whether these activities are civilian support or militarily in nature. We also do not support cooperation between Armenia and Russia in this mission. Russia has teamed up with the Assad regime to kill civilians and cause a humanitarian crisis. Russia continues to protect the Assad regime and its atrocities on a global scale, "according to a written statement from the embassy sent by the Tert.am news agency.

Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anna Nagdaljan said that Armenia had read the statement of the US State Department. Nagdaljan recalled that Armenia welcomed 22,000 Syrian refugees (first and foremost ethnic Armenians from Allepo- ed.) and sent four aircraft loaded with humanitarian goods to Syria. The press spokeswoman reiterated Armenia's intention to continue its mission in Syria, cooperating with international partners providing humanitarian aid there.

The day before, Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan did not rule out that Armenian military personnel could also participate in combat operations in Syria when needed, but in such a case Armenia would act exclusively "within the legal framework". This statement attracted a lot of attention in Armenia, so Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also had to address the issue and correct his minister’s comments: "... we have sent a humanitarian mission to Syria. As for the Minister of Defense's response, it is first necessary to clarify the context in which this statement was made. "Tonojan's controversial statements were his answer to a question about the legal basis of the Armenian mission in Syria.

In recent weeks, Russian-Armenian contacts in the military sector have intensified. On January 30, the Ministry of Defense of Armenia declared that the country had ordered several modern multipurpose SU-30SM fighterjets for the domestic price. The military deal is to be wound up as part of a $ 100 million loan that Russia had made available to Armenia on favorable terms. And on February 9, the head of the Southern Military District of Russia, Colonel General Alexander Dwornikov, visited Armenia, where he and Defense Minister David Tonoyan planned the joint Russian-Armenian military exercises planned for 2019 and 2020, the activity of the 102nd Russian base stationed in Armenia as well as the Armenian mission in Syria.

Unsurprisingly, against this backdrop, the new government program calls for deepening Armenia's relations with Russia as one of its main foreign policy priorities. Military cooperation with Moscow is an important element in ensuring national security. Thus, Pashinyan has kept his word, which he gave to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi: he will perform no foreign policy shift.