TEHRAN, December 8. /TASS/. Washington uses terrorists as an instrument of pressure and a pretext to intervene in the affairs of sovereign states, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday at the second conference of Parliament speakers from Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey on fight against terrorism and strengthen regional cooperation.

According to Volodin, the world community has not yet been able to joint efforts in the fight against terrorism, particularly in Syria. "The US geopolitical ambitions are hindering well-coordinated work; they continue to use terrorists and extremists as an instrument of pressure and direct interference in the affairs of sovereign states, trying to justify this as the so-called concept of countering violent extremism. Under this concept, the idea of introducing ‘anti-extremist standards’ of educating civil society by so-called independent international experts, bypassing the legitimate authorities, is imposed on states civil society," he said.

According to Volodin, this undermines the role of state institutions, the growth of extremist sentiment. "The examples of this are the Middle East and North Africa. From 2011 to 2015, international terrorism in Syria grew to the scale of a ‘terrorist pseudo-state’," he said.

Volodin noted that the liberation of most Syrian territory from Islamic State (IS - terrorist organization banned in Russia) was made possible only due to the agreements of the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey.