Russia will not join the operation of international coalition forces against the terrorist organization Islamic State without proper authorization from the UN Security Council, Russian permanent representative to the UN Vitaly Churkin stated.
"We will not join the coalition, which works without the permission of the Security Council. They bombed Syrian territory without the consent of the Syrian government, without the permission of the Security Council. As I understand it, in Iraq, they at least received the consent of the government. But they did not have it in Syria," gazeta.ru quoted him as saying.
According to the Russian diplomat, the US and its coalition partners themselves cannot decide against whom they are fighting in Syria – against IS or the regime of Bashar Assad. "We believe that the clear priority right now is to fight IS," Churkin stressed.
