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Amidst the claims of progress made by United States led coalition in Syria and Iraq in their offensive against ISIS militants, Russia has questioned the sincerity of the U.S. in the terror offensive. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov slammed Washington's "double standards in seeking to implement geopolitical designs" behind the ISIS offensive than a genuine fight against terrorism and resisting the terror of Islamic State (IS) militant group.

In an open lecture on Russian foreign policy issues in Moscow recently, Lavrov said the ongoing offensive by the West has only "strengthened the position of extremists" in Syria, after "advancing the slogan of overthrowing President Bashar al-Assad."

"This only escalated the terrorist group known as the Islamic State and its method of capturing towns in Iraq and Syria and then running them under Shari'a law," Lavrov said, reports Rferl.

Double Standard

Lavrov explained Moscow's refusal to "participate in the U.S.-led national coalition" against ISIS. He said the U.S strategy of striking terrorists on Syrian territory, and then arming the Syrian opposition parallel to the offensive on Islamic State is nothing but double standard and therefore unacceptable.

"The scale of support by America to the Syrian opposition is in such a way to make them gain the strength needed to topple the Assad government in Syria. We discussed this with our American colleagues to understand their logic, but there are no clear explanations", Lavrov said.

Terrorists Deserve One Answer

Moscow's position is to treat all kinds of terrorists in a similar way. Therefore, the armed opposition in Syria is also part of that and no distinction be made between the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army and groups like ISIS and Jabhat Al-Nusra. Moscow also denied U.S. claims that it agreed to share intelligence with Washington over the ISIS, saying it can do so, only if there is a U.N. Security Council approval for operations against ISIS.

This stand of Russia put a lid to the claim made by Mr, John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State that he and his Russian counterpart Lavrov had broached idea on enhancing intelligence sharing on ISIS, reported AFP Denying such a move, Russia's foreign ministry made clear that unilateral scrapping of a bilateral commission by the U.S is responsible for that. It had mechanisms of cooperation between Washington and Moscow to tackle terrorism.