Russia’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Vitaly Churkin said the United States will not be able to build an effective international coalition against the terrorist organization of the Islamic State (IS) without coordinating with the Syrian government.
Russia Today website quoted Churkin as saying in an interview on American Fox News TV channel that Washington should respect international law in its effort to form the international coalition against the extremist organization.
In his speech about IS last week, U.S. President Barack Obama ruled out coordination with the Syrian government in his plan to form an international coalition to fight IS.
Washington, Churkin said, should coordinate with Damascus in case it wanted to launch strikes against IS positions inside Syria.
A few days ago, Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister Faisal Mikdad said in an interview with Russia Today that the Security Council’s resolutions force any alliances or fronts that are meant to confront terrorism to respect the sovereignty and independence of states and to consult with them regarding war against terrorism, and these alliances should not overstep the rules of international law when taking counterterrorism actions.
Syria has been fighting terrorist groups, including IS, for more than three years within the framework of an internationally-orchestrated war waged against it in which the Syrian people have borne the brunt of those groups’ atrocities.
The past few months have however witnessed increased activity by IS in Syria and neighboring Iraq, with the extremist organization posing a threat to the regional and international peace and security. Syria has warned against this threat since the beginning of the war imposed on it and which the U.S. and many Western and regional countries contributed to its creation by sending hundreds of thousands of mercenary terrorists into Syria.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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