British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond on Monday urged Iran to cooperate with an emerging international coalition to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria even if Tehran did not join the group.
Hammond made the call in Paris after a conference on coordinating a military campaign against IS.
“It was always unlikely that Iran would become a fully fledged member of the coalition but I think we should continue to hope that Iran will align itself broadly with the direction that the coalition is going,” AFP quoted him as saying to reporters.
He also said he hoped Iran would be “cooperative with the plans that the coalition is putting in place, if not actively a part of the coalition.”
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Monday Iran had refused the US request to cooperate with its military campaign against IS.
The US is building the anti-IS coalition, which includes a number of Arab states in the region.