MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. It is unreasonable to exclude Iran from the anti-terrorist coalition, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with NTV on Sunday.
"If for the U.S. President Donald Trump the key priority on the international arena is fighting terrorism, then it is necessary to acknowledge that, say, in Syria against IS (outlawed in Russia) are fighting first of all the Syrian Armed Forces with support from the Russian Aerospace Force, and also the units, including units of Hezbollah, which rely on the Iranian support," the foreign minister said. "Here, would be necessary a choice of priorities."
"If we consider the realistic situation, then, for example, in the claims against Iran, saying it supports terrorist organizations, is involved the organization like FATF (Financial Action Task Force)," the minister said. "This is a task force fighting money laundering and financing terrorism. Iran there is on the list of the countries to be monitored."
A few days earlier, he continued, the organization analyzed what actions Iran undertakes following earlier recommendations. "The result was positive," Lavrov said.
"Thus, here we need details. As we hear (from, for example, our Israeli counterparts) that the weapons Russia supplies to Syria is bound to get to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and it would be used from Lebanon to fire on Israel - we are saying that we are categorically against violation of contract terms, where a recipient country may give our weapons to whoever without our consent," Lavrov said.
"We request detailed facts - this relates to the case with Iran like to any other country," Lavrov said. "In case of suspicions, let us consider them, but unreasonable exclusion of Iran from the anti-terrorist coalition is not pragmatic (Americans are well-known pragmatics).".