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Russian FM: Iran never seen having ties with terrorist groups

February 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm

Iran has never been seen having links to terrorist groups, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

“Iran has never been seen having any ties with Daesh or al-Nusra Front, or any other structure affiliated with these terrorist organizations and included in the relevant UN Security Council list”,Lavrov said.

He stressed that “Iran contributes to combatting IS [Daesh]”, and that it must be a member of the “anti-terrorist front”.

“We have long advocated the idea of creating a unified anti-terrorist front. I am convinced that Iran must be part of our common effort if we evaluate potential contributors to such an alliance objectively”, the minister expressed.

Lavrov’s statements followed Saturday’s claims of US Defense Secretary James Mattis that Iran was the world’s biggest state sponsor of terrorism, and the international community was responsible for keeping the country in check.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump said that Iran was the “number one terrorist state” and the United States would work with Tehran from the position of sanctions.“They [Iran] have total disregard for our country, they’re the number one terrorist state, they’re sending money all over the place and weapons”, he said.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov later announced that Russia’s disagrees with Trump’s remarks.

“We do not agree with the definition…All of you know that Russia enjoys warm relations with Iran, we do cooperate on a range of issues, and we do appreciate our economic ties which, we hope, will go further”, Peskov said.

On the same move, `Trump’s administration announced sanctions Friday against 25 individuals and entities based in Iran,Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and China for allegedly supporting Tehran’s ballistic missile program after its latest medium-range ballistic missile test on January 29.