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Russian Prime Minister says Islamic State must be eliminated

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu agree on the need to coordinate action against international terrorism

JERUSALEM, November 10. /TASS/. The hardcore terrorist group IS (terrorist group, outlawed in Russia), which constitutes the main pillar of terrorism, must be eliminated, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said following talks with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We should destroy IS that constitutes the main pillar of international terrorism," he said.

The Russian head of the government stressed that in this regard coordinating efforts in the security sphere was particularly important. In his opinion, this aspect of cooperation has reached a new level recently. According to Medvedev, Russia also opposes the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

"Obviously, we are open to cooperation with all countries interested in it, we maintain an open attitude as we stand for joining efforts in this field," Medvedev said.

Medvedev has urged coordinated action with Israel in security sphere to fight international terrorism.

"Our countries are facing common challenges," the prime minister said. "First of all, this is terrorism. Terrorism is nowadays threatening the whole globe, but this is felt especially acutely in that region," Medvedev said.

"The Russian Federation is also affected by terrorism. That is why, we must jointly stand against it," he said. Apart from fight against terrorism, Russia and Israel share common values, he went on.

"In the times when attempts are made to deny many values, it is especially important," Medvedev said, pledging that Russia proceeds from the common understanding of the results of WWII, from "crucial importance of defeating Nazism," from antagonism to antisemitism and any xenophobia on the whole".

 Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel, Russia and the United States should together fight against the Islamic State.

"We are partners in the struggle against radical Islamist terrorism. Israel, Russia and the United States should together achieve this goal and eliminate ISIL," Netanyahu said.

"We are afraid of another player, which is pursuing a radical Islamic policy. It is Iran, which has raised the banner of eliminating the State of Israel and is supporting terror by 360 degrees. We are not ready to allow Iran to possess nuclear weapons. We need to avert this scenario and prevent the possibility of Iran to strengthen its positions in Syria irrespective of whether a treaty on Syria is concluded or not," Netanyahu said.

He stressed that Israel had a firm intention of preventing Syria’s seizure by Shi’a Islamic radical groups and that his country also did not want modern weapons, which could be directed at Israel, to fall into the hands of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah group.

"I believe that our cooperation in defense and security is extremely important under these circumstances," the Israeli Prime Minister said.

Russia-Israel cooperation

Medvedev said Russia is interested in boosting cooperation with Israel in the field of innovations and agriculture.

"We’re not just interested in boosting the trade turnover, which has declined recently, we’re interested in a completely different nature of the relationship. We would like the kind of cooperation in particular thanks to the documents we have signed now," he said.

When responding to the words of Benjamin Netanyahu who said that in development of economic ties Russia and Israel have the score 2:1, Medvedev said that "so far the score is 0:0".

"So far we have not done anything to push the economic and investment cooperation. Therefore we met today and therefore we signed the documents my colleagues are holding in their hands," Medvedev said.