Iran, Australia Discuss Cooperation in Fight against ISIL

(FNA)- Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that her country has made consultations with Iranian officials on cooperation in fight against the ISIL and ending other crises in the region.

"We discussed assistance and cooperation to annihilate the ISIL and end the Syrian and Iraqi people's suffering," Bishop told a joint press conference with her Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif in Tehran on Saturday.

Bishop said she and Zarif had constructive talks over human rights issues.

Expressing the hope that talks and interaction between the two countries would continue, Bishop said, "This visit has taken place at the invitation of Mr. Zarif and I came to Tehran in response to your wonderful foreign minister's invitation."

She underlined that there are different issues that Canberra is willing to discuss with Tehran, and voiced pleasure in the progress made in the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany).

Zarif also told the press conference that Tehran and Canberra shared concerns about the spread of terrorism and extremism in the region.

"Today Australian Foreign Minister Julie Isabel Bishop and I talked about different bilateral and regional issues, including our common concerns about extremism and terrorism in the region," Zarif said in the joint press conference with Bishop.

"We also discussed how to confront the very dangerous phenomenon of ISIL in the region and Mrs. Bishop's concern about the presence of westerners and Australians among ISIL ranks as well as the need for coordination, consultation and even cooperation in different fields for confronting this phenomenon …," the Iranian foreign minister added.

Zarif noted that the two sides had also the opportunity to discuss bilateral ties and the need for increasing bilateral interactions in different areas.

Asked about Iran's role in helping the Iraqi government in its fight against the ISIL terrorists, the Iranian foreign minister reiterated that anything that Iran did in Iraq was in coordination and cooperation with the Iraqi government.

"We should not adopt a selective approach while providing international support for the Iraqi government in its fight against extremism and terrorism and the political issues should not be involved; no financial or tactical support should take place either and this (anti-terrorism) fighting should be in coordination with the Iraqi government and respecting the government's decisions," Zarif said.

The Iranian foreign minister reiterated that airstrikes against the ISIL positions were not enough, and said, "We need a huge campaign to resolve the problem of extremism and terrorism, any move against the civilian population is not acceptable to us and the Iraqi government, and we have relayed this message to different Iraqi groups; we hope that the crimes and brutalities by ISIL will come to an end."