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Russia calls for joint struggle against Islamic State - Churkin

Russia has stressed many times that it is bombing the facilities linked to the IS and other terrorist groups

UNITED NATIONS, October 22 /TASS/. Russia has urged countries that are fighting the IS terrorist group to review their shortsighted policy of refusing to join efforts with Russia and begin constructive work over a UN Security Council draft resolution, Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.

He said that Russia had submitted a draft resolution on uniting efforts in fighting against terrorism to the United Nations Security Council.

We are urging everybody to join the constructive work over our proposal. The most important thing is to review the shortsighted policy of refusing to join efforts in the struggle against the Islamic State and jointly select the targets whose destruction would have undermined the potential of IS and other organizations, the Russian diplomat said.

Churkin described the IS threat as intolerable. Russia started its bombing campaign against the Islamic State positions in Syria at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on September 30, Churkin said adding that collective efforts were required to liquidate the IS terrorist threat on the basis of the norms and principles of international law and the provisions of the United Nations Charter. The Russian diplomat called for putting aside non-essential political differences for the purpose of solving this urgent task.

Churkin denied the accusations of U.S. Ambassador to UN Samantha Powers that the Russian military operation in Syria had worsened the humanitarian situation in the country and was playing into the hands of the Islamic State. According to her, the Russian air strikes are targeted at civilian infrastructure and groups that are confronting the IS.

Russia has stressed many times that it is bombing the facilities linked to the IS and other terrorist groups. Andrei Kartapolov, the head of the main operations department of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, told journalists on Thursday that the Russian warplanes had made 834 combat sorties since the operation started on September 30 destroying 819 terrorist targets.