The fight against the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, outlawed in Russia) is not over yet, and the remaining operational terrorist formations must be neutralized, even though their "backbone has been broken," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday
BISHKEK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 04th February, 2019) The fight against the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, outlawed in Russia) is not over yet, and the remaining operational terrorist formations must be neutralized, even though their "backbone has been broken," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump told CBS news in an interview that the United States was keeping its military presence in Iraq in order to be able to "watch Iran." Iraqi President Barham Salih, for his part, said that the Iraqi government would seek clarification from the United States about the number of US forces that will remain in the country as well as their mission.
"Everyone engaged in this matter recognizes that former officers of [former Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein's army, expelled from all posts, largely determine the success of IS operations in situations where the IS achieves some results. This does not mean that the fight against the IS has already been completed. The backbone [of the IS] has been broken, but there are still scattered detachments that cannot be allowed to unite again and which must be destroyed," Lavrov said at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University in Bishkek.
Lavrov noted that there are still "great problems" in Iraq, but also that huge efforts were being taken to bring together the once integral state.
Speaking about the situation in Syria, Lavrov said that work on creating the constitutional committee of Syria was nearing its end.
Since 2014, the US-led coalition of more than 70 countries has been conducting military operations against the IS in Syria and Iraq. The coalition's operations in Iraq are conducted in cooperation with the Iraqi government, but those in Syria are not authorized by the Syrian government or the UN Security Council.
In December, Trump announced that his country would withdraw its forces from Syria because the IS had been defeated. However, Washington later said that it would not publicly disclose a time line for the withdrawal and pledged that the US-led international coalition's fight against terrorism would continue.
