Iran Supports Russia’s Role in Fight against Terrorism

(FNA)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani reiterated his country's support for Russia's military strikes against the terrorist groups in Syria.

"Under the current conditions, given the atmosphere and the adventurism that started and continued in the region, we support Russia's role-playing in the war on terrorism since Russians' action has been done through a realistic view and at the legal demand of the Syrian government," Larijani said, addressing elites and academics in Russia on Wednesday.

Noting that campaign on terrorism is not a tactical and periodical move, he underlined that Iran considers influential countries' assistance to settle the problem as a booster of security in the region.

Larijani downplayed the US-led anti-terrorism coalition's role in the past year, and said, "The coalition has failed to leave any major impact on campaign against terrorism and made the terrorists even bolder."

In relevant remarks on Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined that Russia launched military operations in Syria after it witnessed the failure of the US-led coalition in preventing the spread of terrorism in the Arab country.

"The international coalition has failed against the ISIL in the last one and a half years in Iraq and Syria," Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of the preliminary meeting of the Munich Security Conference which was held in Tehran on Saturday in the presence of high-ranking officials of over 60 world countries.

"Reconnaissance flights were carried out but the operational flights and bombardments didn’t target the ISIL and its positions because they didn’t have political resolve to this end and think that fight against the ISIL means assistance to Bashar Assad," he added.

Reiterating Iran's position that the crisis in Syria cannot be settled through a military solution, Zarif indicated that successful military operations against the terrorists would pave the way for a political settlement of the crisis in Syria. "Of course, there is a need to military action, but not a military solution."

Also, on Friday, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi in a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil in Beirut said that Americans' indifference to combat terrorists in the Middle East made Russians launch war on the ISIL in Syria.

"Lack of seriousness of the Americans in fight against terrorism persuaded Russia to participate directly in war with terrorists in Syria," Boroujerdi said.

"Fight against terrorism is an important and serious issue and that American confrontation with terrorism has merely a propaganda with no action on the ground," he added.

The Iranian MP stressed that Iran supports Syria as frontline of resistance to terrorism.