Russia strongly rejects any attempt to put Iran on par with ISIS, and calls on the United States and Israel to show restraint and readiness for reciprocal steps, Russia’s national security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev said on Tuesday, supposedly in response to comments made in the trilateral talks in Jerusalem with US national security advisor John Bolton and head of the Israeli national security council Meir Ben-Shabbat, TASS reported.
“In the context of the statements made by our partners with regard to a major regional power, namely Iran, I would like to say the following: Iran has always been and remains our ally and partner, with which we are consistently developing relations both on bilateral basis and within multilateral formats,” Patrushev said after the trilateral meeting.
“This is why we believe that it is inadmissible to describe Iran as a major threat to regional security and, moreover, to put it on par with the Islamic State or any other terrorist organization,” Patrushev stated.
He stressed that Iran is a significant contributor to the fight against terrorism and the settlement of the conflict in Syria.
“We have called on our partners to show restraint and readiness for reciprocal steps, which must serve as the basis for the consistent advancement towards the easing of tensions in the Israeli-Iranian relations,” Patrushev said.
Iran has cultivated regional and international terrorism since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. It has been accused of supporting terrorism worldwide. Iran has been accused of training, financing, and providing weapons and shelter for Hezbollah, Hamas, and numerous other internationally-designated terrorist groups.
Secretary Patrushev should consult Wikipedia. We did.