A foreign ministry official on Thursday expressed serious reservations about the emerging US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS).
“There are serious ambiguities about the so-called international coalition to fight the IS and there are real doubts about its seriousness to sincerely deal with the root causes of terrorism,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Marzieh Afkham said.
Some of the countries in the coalition had been among military and financial supporters of the terrorists in Iraq and Syria and some other countries had failed to meet their international obligations to combat terrorism because they had been hopeful that their desired political changes would take place in Iraq and Syria, Afkham said.
Double standards toward terrorism and extremism over the past years have only contributed to the spread of the issues, she added.
Islamic State militants have seized large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria and have posed a serious threat to the security of the region. Iran has announced that it is helping the Iraqi government in its campaign against the IS.
US President Barack Obama announced his plans in a prime time address on Wednesday to build an alliance to root out the Islamic State in both Syria and Iraq.
Obama said he had authorized US air strikes for the first time in Syria and more attacks in Iraq in an escalation of a campaign against the Islamic State.
Afkham said Iran and the US had not held talks about the IS during their recent bilateral meeting in Geneva.
“In the negotiations with the American side, no issue but the nuclear issue was discussed,” she said.
