Syria: Victory in sight over IS terrorists

UNITED NATIONS — Syria’s foreign minister told world leaders Saturday that his country is “marching steadily” toward the goal of rooting out terrorism — and “victory is now within reach.”

Walid Al-Moualem pointed to “the liberation of Aleppo and Palmyra,” the end to the siege of Deir el-Zour by the Islamic State extremist group, “and the eradication of terrorism from many parts of Syria” by the Syrian army and its supporters and allies, including Russia and Iran.

Russia’s military said about two weeks ago that Syrian troops have liberated about 85 percent of the war-torn country’s territory from militants, a major turn-around two years after Moscow intervened to lend a hand to its embattled longtime ally.

While al-Moualem was looking toward the end of Syria’s morethan-six-year civil war, the leader of hurricane-hammered Dominica made an impassioned plea for help at the General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting for an island country on “the front line of the war on climate change.”

“Let these extraordinary events elicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit told the 193-nation world body five days after Hurricane Maria swept over his Caribbean country with 160 mph winds, killing 15 people, flattening homes and destroying roads.

In his speech, Syria’s al-Moualem heaped praise on the army and the country’s allies and looked ahead to victory, though fighting still continues in many areas of the country.