Russian diplomat says West lacks political will for anti-terrorism cooperation

MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. The lack of Western countries’ political will does not allow to establish effective cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Director of Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for issues of new challenges and threats Igor Rogachev told TASS on Tuesday.

"Western countries did not have political will for an effective partnership in the framework of uncompromising fight against terrorism, and they still lack it," Rogachev said. "Tasks of eliminating terrorist groups too often depend on some political or even geopolitical concerns, end up overlain by other agendas," he added.

"This is a mistake, we do not stop to say this, call for conscientiously joining efforts of countries and the whole international community in the framework of single anti-terrorist coalition or front, on the basis of international law and UN Charter, without politicizing anything, any preconditions and infamous double standards," the diplomat noted.

He reminded that Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward this initiative at the 70th session of UN General Assembly. "This initiative enjoys considerable support in the world, but there are deviations of counter-productive division of terrorists for ‘bad’ and ‘worse’ which can be used in some scenarios, for instance to destabilize and overthrow ‘unfavorable regimes’," Rogachev concluded.