UNITED NATIONS, September 30./TASS/. Russian Air Force operation in Syria is only directed at fight against terrorism, the United States has been informed of that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a session of the UN Security Council on conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa on Wednesday.
Russia's top diplomat called unilateral actions in the Middle East and North Africa harmful, adding that collective coordinated approach on the basis of UN Security Council decisions is needed.
"We will not succeed without taking into account lessons from tragic mistakes and undertakings in the region over the last 10-12 years," Lavrov said. "The main lesson is that any unilateral actions are harmful. Collective coordinated approaches based on UN Security Council decisions are needed," he added.
Lavrov reminded that "Russian assessment of the situation was detailed in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s speech at the summit of UN General Assembly on September 28." "We are not trying to take the discussion in a fruitless direction of a showdown — who is right and who is wrong," he said.
"We think it is necessary to start from clearly and unequivocally setting priorities. Here, as far as I understand, there is a concrete understanding that the main threat is terrorist aggression embodied in the actions of ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — former name of Islamic State terrorist organization]," Lavrov noted.
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Russia to present to UN Security Council members draft resolution on countering terrorism
"Speaking from the UN General Assembly rostrum, President Vladimir Putin suggested discussing the possibility to coordinate the UN Security Council resolution on coordination of actions of all forces countering the IS and other terrorist structures," Lavrov said.
"Today we will submit a draft of such a resolution to the Security Council members," he said.
Lavrov said Russia hopes the UN Security Council will start work on the Russian resolution in October.
Russia thinks it necessary to put Islamic State on the UN Security Council's sanctions list as a separate subject, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday at the UN SC Chamber titled ‘Maintenance of international peace and security. Settlement of conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa and countering the terrorist threat in the region’.
"We believe Islamic State must be put as a separate subject on the UN Security Council’s sanctions list counteracting terrorism," Lavrov said. "Any delay in settling this evident issue is becoming counterproductive from the point of view of effectiveness of UN activities in counteraction of terrorism."
"We call for more insistent and targeted counteraction to the threats coming from foreign terrorists and militants," the minister said. "We should urgently create a united database containing information about these combatants and should work out additional mechanisms to exchange information on their movements and on simplified procedures of its emission."
Not refugees must be stopped, but terrorists and conflicts begetting them
A firm barrier to aspirations of Islamic State to place the region under medieval dictate must be created to cope with the migrant crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.
"Now, when merciless expansion of terrorists has triggered an uncontrollable wave of mass exodus from the region to Europe, understanding of global trouble must help in reaching coordinated action," the top diplomat said.
"We have paid attention to the fact that during a recent informal summit of the EU Council in Luxemburg and at a Prague summit of the Visegrad Group it was acknowledged distinctly that it would be impossible to cope with the migrant crisis without elimination of its prime causes," he said, citing the need to create "a firm barrier to aspirations of Islamic State to place the region under medieval dictate".
"It is not refugees that must be stopped, but terrorists and wars and conflicts begetting them," the top diplomat said.
Russia is ready to establish permanent channels of communication with United States and its coalition partners to efficiently combat terrorism, the foreign minister concluded.