Iran says it is willing to cooperate with Russia in war on ISIS

A day after confirming that Russia is using Iranian bases to bomb Islamic State targets in Syria, an Iranian official said Tehran is ready to pursue the "necessary cooperation" with Russia to fight the jihadi group.

"Russia is one of the countries that's really dedicated to combating ISIS. We must stick to combating these kind of terrorists. Iran has never changed its policies on this. It is just on this common target that Iran and Russia carried out a very good cooperation. Iran has been ready to carry out various [types of] cooperation, including [sharing] facilities with Russia in combating ISIS," Iranian National Security and Foreign Policy Commission spokesman Hossein Naghavi Hosseini said in an interview with China Central Television on Wednesday.

The Russian Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that Russian bombers had carried out airstrikes against terrorist targets in Syria from an air base in Iran for the first time.

The ministry said five large warehouses with weapons, ammunition, fuel and lubricants, three command posts and several training camps were destroyed, and a significant number of terrorists were killed in the campaign.

It was also the first time Iran allowed a foreign country to use its territory for military operations since the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Alireza Rahimi, a member of the Iranian National Security Commission, said Iran's allowing Russia to use its air base is part of a bigger, open military cooperation plan between the two countries to combat Islamic State.

"This is a bigger plan and a bigger agreement based on the situation, which is not fixed in the Middle East, and especially in Syria. Depending on the development of the situation in Syria, new decisions could be made," Rahimi said.

And another commission member, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said the military cooperation between Iran and Russia in Syria is only the beginning.

"The Iran-Russia cooperation in Syria is just the beginning of this plan, which will not be limited only to Syria. It will go to other regions, even possibly Yemen," Falahatpisheh said.

According to commission chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi, Iran is pursuing intensive consultations with Turkey, hoping it will join Iran and Russia to fight Islamic State.

"We are negotiating with Turkey. This is a very important negotiation. We think we will achieve good results," he said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Russia was "exacerbating what is already a very dangerous situation ... by using Iranian air bases as a way to carry out more intensive bombing runs that continue to hit civilian populations."

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