Russian President Vladimir Putin’s initiative to create a national coalition to include Syria and Iran against the Islamic State is a “great idea” and outshines the US-led coalition, a French National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee member said on Thursday.
'It is a good decision to set up a coalition. The US-led coalition has no clear target as they want to oust [Syrian President] Bashar Assad and to fight against terrorism at the same time,” Thierry Mariani told Sputnik.
He said that after thousands of airstrikes carried out by the US-led coalition, there are still no positive results.
“After 7,000 airstrikes we don't see any result. I think that Putin's proposition to establish a major international coalition that will include Syria and Iran is a great idea,' Mariani said.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since March 2011. Government forces have been fighting so-called 'moderate' opposition factions and extremist groups, such as the Islamic State and the Nusra Front.
A US-led coalition has been bombing ISIL targets in Syria since 2014 without the approval of the UN Security Council or Damascus.
Moscow has repeatedly called for the creation of a counter-terrorism coalition which would include Syria.
In September, Putin said he had discussed the idea of establishing an international anti-terrorist coalition together with the Syrian government to fight ISIL, with his US counterpart Barack Obama, also raising the subject with the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as other Russia's partners. Iran welcomed the initiative.
Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq earlier agreed to create the Baghdad Information Center for coordinating intelligence and security cooperation against terrorists. The center will focus on collecting, processing, summarizing and analyzing current data about the Middle East in the context of the fight against ISIL.
On Wednesday, the Russian parliament backed President Vladimir Putin’s request to conduct airstrikes against the Islamic State, following an appeal by the Syrian government. The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that it has since carried out 20 missions in Syria, striking at least eight Islamic State targets; IRNA reported.
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