Countries Financing Terrorism Must Be Sanctioned - Italian MP

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Military actions against terrorists are not enough without appropriate measures including sanctions to prevent countries from financing terrorism, Italy’s Communist Refoundation Party leader Paolo Ferrero told Sputnik.

"What we need is not just a military action, but also to take necessary steps in order to block the financial support to these groups, even with sanctions against all the countries who, as everybody knows very well, are helping and financing terrorist organizations," Ferrero said.

On Wednesday, Russian Ambassador to France Alexander Orlov said that Ankara had played an "ambiguous" role in the international campaign against the Islamic State militants by assisting the terrorist group’s activities.

Ferrero said Turkey expressed its intention to continue "granting logistical and intelligence support" to terrorist groups in Syria by "deliberately" downing a Russian jet over Syrian territory on Tuesday.

Western countries that support opposition groups in Syria are engaged in double-dealing, as they in fact support terrorism, Paolo Ferrero said.

"I think that it is time to stop the double game that some Western countries are playing regarding Syria, starting from the United States. Because you cannot say that you want to stop terror on the one hand, and with the other hand send weapons to 'rebels groups.' There are no moderate rebels in Syria. All of them are part of jihadists networks," Ferrero said.

Ferrero said that supporting armed groups in another country is a violation of international law, and Western countries had failed to learn the lesson of what happened in Iraq and Libya.

A number of Western states have provided military aid to opposition factions, which they consider to be "moderate," since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.

For almost five years Syrian government forces have been fighting opposition factions and several extremist groups, including the Islamic State and the Nusra Front.

Unlike Russia, the United States and its Western allies do not consider President Bashar Assad to be the country's legitimate leader, and back armed Syrian opposition factions in their attempts to oust the president.

Russia has been launching airstrikes against ISIL in Syria on Assad’s request since September 30. A US-led international coalition has also been carrying out an aerial campaign against the militants, but without the approval of Damascus or the United Nations.