BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:15 A.M.) – Russia’s Special Envoy to Syria Alexander Lavrentiev has said that US forces have “no legitimate reasons” to still be in Syria, at a press conference in Astana on Thursday.

“The Americans continue to refer to humanitarian issues, that their presence in the north of the country in the Kurds regions is necessary to prevent further bloodshed, to prevent the revival of the Islamic state, but these, as we all understand are only words”, he said.

Lavrentiev made the comments at peace talks between Russia, Turkey and Iran in the Kazakh capital, ahead of next year’s Congress of Syrian Peoples.