Iraq confirms security cooperation with Russian Federation, Iran, Syria

One strike in Syria hit an Islamic State crude oil collection point near Dayr Az Zawr, it said.

Iraq has long had close ties with neighboring Iran and has coordinated with Tehran in fighting the advance of IS – which controls about a third of Iraq and Syria. Iran has sent military advisers to Iraq and worked closely with Shiite militias battling the IS group.

This wouldn’t be the first time that the fight against ISIS has resulted in cooperation between US allies and rivals.

The United States has protested the infusion of new arms to the Assad regime but Russian Federation maintains it is only honouring existing military contracts with Syria, a longstanding military ally going back to the days of President Hafez al-Assad, the father of the current president.

A Russian Foreign Ministry official told Interfax on Friday that Moscow could “theoretically” join the U.S.-led coalition against the IS if Damascus were included in global efforts to combat the dreaded outfit and any worldwide military operation in Syria had a United Nations mandate.

“We acknowledge that the Iraqis have not produced any significant forward movement lately”, mentioned Col. Pat Ryder, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, in a phone briefing with Pentagon reporters. But now Russian Federation is upping its presence in the region.

Critics have urged U.S. President Barack Obama to be more decisive in the Middle-East, particularly towards the Syrian conflict, and say lack of a clear American policy has given the IS opportunities to expand.

Lavrov, when asked about the goal of the cooperation with Iraq, said it was to “coordinate the efforts against ISIL”.

An assertion from the originial and Iraqi military’s shared procedures dominate on Saturday said the kindness had come “by having higher Russian worry about the population of lots and lots of terrorists from Russia working on lawbreaker functions by using Daesh (Islamic State)”.