Reaction to Russian Calls to Anti-ISIL Cooperation 'Unjustifiably Slow'

The reaction of other countries to Russia’s calls for cooperation in the fight against the Islamic State militant group has been "unjustifiably slow," the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament said Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — At the 70th session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, Putin urged the international community to create a broad international anti-terrorism coalition, to include Islamic countries.

"The Russian president [Vladimir Putin] always talks about the necessity of close cooperation in the fight with today’s biggest threat for humanity. However, the reaction of other countries has been unjustifiably slow," Valentina Matvienko told the Izvestiya newspaper.

According to Matvienko, other countries seem to be supporting the anti-ISIL fight, yet they are "not hurrying with practical steps to create an international coalition to fight ISIL and other terrorist organizations."

Russian jets commenced precision airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria on September 30, following a request from Syrian President Bashar Assad.

A US-led international coalition has been conducting airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria since 2014 without an approval of the UN Security Council or the Syrian government.

After Russia launched its military operation, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Moscow was ready to use the information obtained by the US-led coalition to fight ISIL in Syria, calling on coalition members to exchange intelligence on the militant group.

According to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the United States has declined proposals to cooperate with Moscow and Damascus on target data collected by Russian and Syrian intelligence services.