MOSCOW, September 30 (RIA Novosti) – Syria is satisfied with the airstrikes that the United States has been carrying out against the Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the country's Foreign Minister Walid Moualem said in an interview with Associated Press (AP).
"Until today, we are satisfied. As long as they [the United States] are aiming at ISIS locations in Syria and in Iraq, we are satisfied," Moualem said Monday, as quoted by AP.
Syria's foreign minister admitted that the United States does not inform Syria of every strike before it happens, "but it's OK".
"We are fighting ISIS, they are fighting ISIS," Moualem said, noting that he considers the IS and all Islamist groups fighting in Syria to be essentially on the same side and saying they should all be targeted. "Without doubt, because they have the same ideology. They have the same extremist ideology."
On September 10, US President Barack Obama unveiled his strategy to defeat the IS, an extremist group which has been fighting the Syrian government since 2012. Obama's plan stipulated, forming an international anti-IS coalition, providing equipment and training to Kurdish and Iraqi forces, as well as Syria's moderate opposition, and conducting airstrikes against IS positions in Syria, while simultaneously continuing airstrikes in Iraq.
The IS militants expanded their operations to northern and western Iraq in June, 2014. The United States authorized limited airstrikes against IS positions in Iraq in August.
The United Kingdom, Denmark, France and Belgium have joined the United States in conducting airstrikes against the IS in Iraq.
