Ufa, Russia, SANA – Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed on Thursday the need that all efforts be united to combat ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations related to international terrorism away from any double standards.

Addressing a press conference held in the Russian city of Ufa on the sidelines of the BRICS summit, Lavrov called on the financers of terrorism to realize its danger, which is extending across borders.

“It is not possible that terrorists be used at temporary allies in order to isolate a particular political regime, and that is what we have seen in Syria,” said Lavrov, highlighting how the West and the US have ignored the terrorists’ activities in order to topple the political “regime” in Syria and worked to freeze Russia’s initiatives at the Security Council to prevent the escalation of the situation in the country.

Lavrov warned of the threat posed by ISIS on most countries of the world, including the US, Russia and the European Union, noting that Russia is taking measures to control attempts of Russian nationals to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

He pointed out that the participants in the summits of the BRICS group and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which are being held simultaneously in Ufa, share a common stance that ISIS and all other terrorist organizations are “outright evil” and must be combated decisively.

He noted that this common stance will be shaped in the documents and joint declaration that will be issued by the two BRICS and SCO summits.

Lavrov referred to a Russian initiative in relation to combating terrorism that was hinted at by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem in Moscow recently.

Putin, Lavrov said, stressed then the need to quickly think out the effort of unifying the capabilities of the forces that realize the risk of ISIS and arranging means to combat this terrorist organization in Syria and Iraq, referring to role Iran could play in this effort given its interest in preventing the escalation of the activity of ISIS.

The Russian initiative in this regard, Lavrov clarified, is achieving the unification of all forces to fight terrorism, particularly ISIS, and pushing for a political settlement to the crisis in Syria.

Russia is a member of both the BRICS and SCO groupings.

BRICS is a grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, that are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional and global affairs.

SCO is a Eurasian political, economic and military organization which was founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Qabas/ H. Said