UK Calls On Iran To Join Coalition Against ISIL

KABUL: (Middle East Press) British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond urged Iran to assist with the coalition to fight members of the terrorist group of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), even if Tehran did not join the group.

Hammond made the call in Paris after a major discussion on Iraq.

“It was always doubtful that Iran would become a fully fledged member of the coalition, but I think we should continue to hope that Iran will line up itself broadly with the direction that the coalition is going,” AFP quoted as Hammond saying.

He also said that he hoped Iran would be “supportive with the plans that the coalition is putting in place, if not actively a part of the coalition.”

Iran, which was not invited to the meeting, has said that it would not take part in military cooperation with the US in Iraq.

The 30 states and organizations took part in the Paris conference agreed to support the Iraqi government “by any means necessary” to fight the extremists, including “apposite military assistance”.

Hammond said Britain had not so far “made any decision on whether or not it is going to engage in air strikes at this stage.

The British minister said air strikes in Syria would be a far more complicated matter than in Iraq and of a far bigger magnitude for “all types of reasons, military, legal and scientific, but we haven’t ruled it out.”