Putin says progress reached in coordinating steps on anti-IS fight in Syria

BURABAY VILLAGE/Kazakhstan/, October 16. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has noted progress in coordinating steps on the fight against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Syria, saying contacts with the Middle East countries have been established. "Certain progress is seen here in the context of coordinating actions and efforts on the fight against terrorism in this region," Putin said at the meeting of the Council of CIS heads of state in a narrow format. "We have managed to establish business contacts with the Middle East countries," Putin said. Russia is now in talks with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Israel and other countries and tries to establish cooperation with the United States and Turkey, he added. At the meeting, the Russian leader once again stressed Moscow’s commitment to creating a broad coalition to fight against terrorism and called on all the parties concerned to join the work of the information center in Baghdad. Russia, Syria, Iran and Iraq have set up the information center in Bagdad to coordinate fight against the IS group, which is banned in Russia. The information center will be tasked with collecting, processing, analyzing and summarizing the information on the situation in the Middle East as part of the effort to fight against the IS. Read more