Russia not going to take part in ground operations in Syria - Russian upper house speaker

AMMAN, October 5. /TASS/. Russia will not take part in any ground operations in Syria and is ready to cooperate with all states interested in extermination of the terrorist group Islamic State, Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia’s Federation Council upper parliament house, said on Monday. "We will not take part in any field operations and are ready for cooperation with all states, regions and off-region players in common efforts against the global evil - terrorism," she said at a meeting with President of Jordan’s Senate Abdelraouf al-Rawabdeh. "Russia will not get involved in settling the Syrian domestic crisis for long. It is just Russia’s air support to the Syrian regular army, Kurdish forces fighting against Islamic State terrorists." She reminded that Russia, Iraq, Syria and Iran had set up a coordination centre. "We understand that it is impossible to struggle against the Islamic State , to exterminate it without due coordination and we invite all those who are really interested in uprooting the Islamic State to join this coordination centre," she stressed. She once again reiterated that Russia had no other goals than to defeat the Islamic State, "unlike other countries that are members of another coalition." The Islamic State is an Islamic terrorist organization banned in Russia. In 2013-2014, it was known under the name the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and operated mainly in Iraq and Syria. In June 2014, the Islamic State announced the establishment of an "Islamic caliphate" (a state with a Sharia form of government) on the territories it had seized and reduced its name to the Islamic State. According to the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency, the extremist group numbers around 30,000 people. The Iraqi authorities say however it has up to 200,000 gunmen. Among members of the group are citizens of 80 countries, including France, Great Britain, Germany, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, U.S., Canada, Russia and other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Islamic State militants reportedly control up to 40 percent of the Iraq’s territory and about 50 percent of the Syrian territory. Read more