Kerry: Iran Can Help Defeat ’ISIL’

Local Editor

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that Iran had a role to play in a global coalition to tackle "ISIL" militants.

"The coalition required to eliminate [ISIL] is not only, or even primarily, military in nature," Kerry told a United Nations Security Council meeting on Iraq.

He further added: "It must be comprehensive and include close collaboration across multiple lines of effort. It's about taking out an entire network, decimating and discrediting a militant cult masquerading as a religious movement."

"There is a role for nearly every country in the world to play, including Iran," he confirmed.

The US president of the UN Security Council for September called the meeting on Iraq as it builds an international military, political and financial coalition to defeat the extremist group.

This comes as the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution His Eminence Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei this week said he had rejected an offer by Washington for talks on fighting "ISIL".
"I saw no point in cooperating with a country whose hands are dirty and intentions murky," Imam Khamenei was quoted as saying.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif also warned that the "dangerous phenomenon" of "ISIL" would not be "eradicated through aerial bombardments".

All 15 members of the Security Council approved a presidential statement that urges the international community to expand support for the Iraqi government as it fights "ISIL".
It expressed "deep outrage" at the killing, kidnapping, rape and torture of Iraqis and citizens of other countries by "ISIL", noting that some of those acts might constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Kerry's comments came after the US state department revealed that US and Iranian representatives had discussed the threat posed by "ISIL" on the sidelines of talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team