US Wants to Free Itself From Responsibility for ISIL Expansion

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia cannot overlook the US attempt to absolve itself of responsibility for the growth of the Islamic State (IS) militant group after Washington and its allies blocked a UN resolution to add the group to the sanctions list, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

The ministry stated that the United States, among others, blocked Syria's resolution to add IS to the sanctions list in the UN Security Council. Currently the group is listed as one of the names for al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

Washington insists that AQI should be renamed to the Islamic State in the sanctions list, the foreign ministry said.

"The political implications of a such position are clear – to absolve itself of the responsibility for the expansion of activities of the Islamic State and to prove it is not a new organization created as a result of the implementation of plans to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, but the same al-Qaeda in Iraq."

Syria has been in a state of civil war for the past four years, with government forces engaged against various Islamic extremist groups, including the Islamic State. The US State Department has long asserted that Assad has lost his legitimacy as president and cannot be part of a future government in Syria.

The Islamic State is a Sunni jihadist rebel group that has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories under its control.

In January, Human Rights Watch said in its annual report that the emergence of the Islamic State militant group was partially due to the United States-led military war and occupation of Iraq.