Russian top security official says preconditions unacceptable in joint anti-terror fight

MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The head of Russia's Security Council, Nikolai Patrushev, told foreign journalists in an interview on Monday that no preconditions are acceptable when creating a united front to combat terrorism.

"It is necessary to give up preconditions when establishing a united front to fight terrorism," Patrushev said. "We constantly pursue this line in the contacts with our foreign partners."

Russia already sees that France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the North-Atlantic alliance in general are interested in the joint fight against terrorism, Patrushev said.

"There are objective reasons here that are also linked to Russia’s successful operation in Syria," the Security Council secretary said. "Here it is important that our actions comply with the international law and are carried out at the request of the legitimate Syrian authorities."

"We also note that after this operation started the United States and its allies also stepped up their actions against terrorists," Patrushev said.

Russia has managed to reach certain progress in consolidating efforts of the international community in this direction, he added. "One of the apparent results were the recently adopted resolutions by the UN Security Council aimed at fighting against the ISIL (the Islamic State) and other terrorist organizations."

Patrushev also said understanding is growing in the countries that "one cannot further turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the radical Islamists hoping to use them to topple the legitimate governments."

"We are firmly convinced that the fight against terrorism should be consistent," Patrushev stressed. "We are showing that by our own example. The attempts to divide terrorists into the "good" and "bad" ones are absolutely unacceptable."