Moscow, February 15, Interfax - The threat of a direct clash between representatives of nuclear powers in Syria was the reason for the arrangement of a meeting between the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and Pope Francis, the patriarch said at a meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan in Moscow on Thursday.

"Russian military-space forces together with [Syrian] government troops were doing their job and doing it very successfully, but other countries formed a coalition and seemed to be doing their own job. And the very fact of the presence of two powerful armed groupings that did not have common coordination was an enormous challenge and an enormous risk of large-scale hostilities," the head of the Russian Orthodox Church said.

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