US Not Willing to Seriously Resist ISIL – Iranian Foreign Minister

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that ISIL destabilizes the situation in the Middle East and Iran will support all the real attempts to counter it at the global and the regional level.

BERLIN (Sputnik) — Tehran does not see real US intentions to confront the Islamic State (ISIL) jihadist group, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with Spiegel on Saturday.

"We see no willingness on the part of the United States to seriously resist Islamic State,” Zarif told the news outlet.

According to the minister, ISIL destabilizes the situation in the Middle East and Iran will support all the real attempts to counter it at the global and the regional level.

He stressed that Western countries could not fence themselves off the fight against extremists.

"The West is also a part of the problem. People, who were born and raised in the West, now are in Iraq and Syria beheading the victims or burning them alive," the minister added.

The Islamic State extremist group has seized vast territories across Syria and Iraq, gaining notoriety for its brutal methods, including mass executions.

According to the US National Counterterrorism Center, over 20,000 foreigners from 90 countries, including thousands of westerners, are suspected to have joined ISIL over the last three years.

A US-led Coalition of some 60 nations has been carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State targets in Iraq since August 2014, and in Syria since September 2014, albeit without the approval of the Syrian government.