Russian Patriarch to Syrian Grand Mufti: Syria must remain unified

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia stressed the support of the Russian Orthodox Church and the entire people of Russia for Syria in its battle against the international terrorism forces.
The Patriarch’s stress of solidarity was voiced during his meeting with Syria’s Mufti Ahmad Badr-Eddin Hassoun who is on a visit to Moscow.
He made it clear that the attitude of the Church and Russian state towards the crisis in Syria is based on that “the intervention of foreign powers in the Syrian affair has destroyed peaceful life” in the country.
Patriarch Kirill said massive amounts of money have been allocated to enforce a change of the “legitimate regime” in Syria, for which purpose the most powerful extremist obscurantist forces have got involved in a war to impose this change.
He decried the terrorist organization of the Islamic State of Iraq And Syria (ISIS), for whose creation he blamed those extremist forces, as posing a real threat to peace in the region.
As he hailed Syria’s experience in building fraternity relations between the Muslims and Christians in it, the Patriarch affirmed the necessity that Syria remain a unified state and that its people continue their struggle to maintain their independence.
For his part, Mufti Hassoun expressed thanks on behalf of the Syrian people to Patriarch Kirill and for the humanitarian aid which the Orthodox Church sends to Syria.
Hassoun also met with Head of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society Sergei Stepashin and discussed with him issues of cooperation between the Society and the religious bodies in Syria, touching upon the Society’s decision on putting more efforts to continue humanitarian aid delivery to the Syrian people.