Hayat Tahrir al-Sham
© Omar Haj Kadour/AFPHayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) members at a camp in the countryside of the northern Idlib province on August 14, 2018.
The US is supplying weapons to terrorists in Syria through third countries such as Ukraine, the Syrian Foreign Ministry confirmed. Political scientist Yuri Pochta listed the reasons why Kiev participates in arms trafficking in the "gray" market.

Earlier, the first secretary of the Foreign Relations Department of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, Alaa Din Saeed Hamdan, said that Washington and its allies has been supplying weapons to terrorists in the Al-Qaeda affiliated al-Nusra and ISIS jihadist groups, taking advantage of "intermediaries".

"It is clear that the US and its allies provide a large number of ammunition and armaments through third countries, such as Eastern European countries, Ukraine or Balkan countries, to deliver arms to the al-Nusra Front or Daesh [ISIS]," said the representative of the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

The political scientist and professor at the Russian University of Friendship of Peoples, Yuri Pochta, commented on the diplomat's statement.

"Syrian diplomats' statements about weapons being delivered to terrorists in Syria including through Ukraine are probably well-founded. The 'gray market' for armaments has long been a source for radical groupings, including those that continue after the collapse of the USSR. Ukraine actively sold huge reserves of armaments that remained in its territory and did not take care of it," said the political scientist.

According to him, Kiev also has other reasons to participate in illegal arms trafficking, in addition to the financial.

"Apart from the financial one, there is another aspect - the political one. A series of radical clusters are backed by the West clandestinely, so the Western countries do not supply weapons directly from their territory, but they supply them through countries in a kind of 'laundering' of weapons, and Ukraine, unfortunately, also participates in that, of course," Pochta said.

The armed conflict in Syria has been dragging on since 2011. In late 2017, the victory over Daesh in Syria and Iraq was announced, but in some regions cleaning operations are still being carried out with the help of the Russian Aerospace Force.
About the Author:

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies. He has an MA in International Relations and is interested in Great Power Rivalry as well as the International Relations and Political Economy of the Middle East and Latin America.