Russia concerned over Islamic State growing potential - Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. Russia voices concern over the growing potential of the Islamic State terrorist group, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Thursday. “We’re very concerned over strengthening the positions of the Islamic State, particularly with regard of the activities of the so-called anti-terrorist coalition led by the US that was the factor for countering this regional threat,” Lukashevich said. According to media reports, “as a result of air strikes on Syria 1,175 militants of the Islamic State were killed. It is difficult to say how this statistics can correspond to real data. But it is obvious that this threat cannot be overcome without close cooperation with the Syrian government”, he said. Terrorists “use the situation better. They learnt to minimise their losses by closely contacting with the population of many regions”. “They use different ideological methods, including the religious factor. New Jihadists appear in place of every killed militant and strengthen the ranks of the terrorist group,” Lukashevich said. “We confirm our principled position to support a decisive fight of the Syrian government against terrorists. The internal armed conflict in Syria cannot be resolved by military means and it requires joint political efforts to launch an inclusive inter-Syrian dialogue on the base of the Geneva communique of June 30, 2012,” he said. “The dialogue should start as soon as possible, without preconditions and without outside interference,” Lukashevich said. Read more