In late June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem that Moscow would support the establishment of an anti-terrorism coalition if Syria considered it appropriate and possible.
"We agree to any assistance that we will be provided with by any state in the fight against terrorism. When your president came up with this initiative, and said that Syria and other countries need to unite and work together to fight terrorism, we agreed with this," Haddad told Rossiya-24 television.
Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with the government fighting against many opposition factions and militant groups, such as ISIL.
The advance of the extremist group is being countered by the Iraqi and Syrian government forces, Kurdish troops and a US-led international coalition of over 60 countries that is conducting airstrikes on ISIL positions.
