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UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) -- Vitaly Churkin, the Russian permanent representative to the United Nations, said on Monday that without Moscow's help the black flags of rebel Islamic extremists could be flying over the Syrian capital of Damascus.
"Had it not been for our involvement in Syria, it might well be that the black flags (of ISIL or ISIS) would be flying over Damascus," he told reporters here. "This is the reality of the situation and this is the reality of the situation that (al) Nusra moved to eastern Aleppo."
Churkin, this month's president of the UN Security Council, made the statement as he was holding a routine briefing for reporters on the program of work for the 15-nation council this month. However, Churkin was clearly speaking in his national capacity on the topic.
The Russian envoy had been asked about his nation's involvement in Syria.
"The UN people (Special Envoy for Syria) Staffan de Mistura in open chamber of the Security Council (in a briefing last month) said like half of the fighters -- and we think that may be slightly over half the fighters, al Nusra -- they are keeping the civilian population hostage," he said.
"What we wanted to do is to have very close cooperation with the United States to fight al Nusra as together as we possibly could, given all the political circumstances," Churkin said. "Unfortunately it didn't work out from the perspective of the United States."
"We see an extremely, extremely dramatic situation where we must make sure that the Nusra influence is not going to continue to spread in the eastern parts of the country and they have been trying to go on the offensive," in some areas near Aleppo," he said.
"I have no doubt that our military is trying to do their best to avoid civilian casualties," the Moscow envoy said.
The United States has suspended negotiations with Russia on restoring a ceasefire in Syria, the State Department said on Monday, blaming Moscow for its military role in the attack on the Syrian city of Aleppo.
The decision followed a threat from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week as Washington is growingly impatient with Moscow on the Syria issue and posed new challenges on the prospects of a political solution to the five-year-old conflict.
"This is not a decision that was taken lightly," State Department spokesperson John Kirby said in a statement, accusing Russia of failing to live up to its commitments on the ceasefire agreement on Syria reached last month.
Russia was "either unwilling or unable to ensure Syrian regime adherence to the arrangements to which Moscow agreed," he added.
The spokesperson also accused Moscow and Damascus of targeting civilian areas and critical infrastructure such as hospitals and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in need.
In response to Washington's decision, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that the U.S. is trying to shift the blame on Russia.
"Washington has simply failed to live up to the key commitment under the agreements -- to facilitate the humanitarian assistance to residents of the Aleppo city...(and) to apply pressure on the armed opposition groups," the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.
