While the US and its allies are supporting, directly or indirectly, terrorist groups, there is little room for improvement in relations between Iran and the US, says Seyed Mohammad Marandi, professor at the University of Tehran.

Russian naval strikes caused some concern in the West, which is conducting its own anti-ISIL air campaign in Syria. However, Iran's foreign minister put their actions into doubt, actually saying that the US-led coalition is just for show.

While the US and its allies are supporting, directly or indirectly, terrorist groups, there is little room for improvement in relations between Iran and the US, says Seyed Mohammad Marandi, professor at the University of Tehran.

Russian naval strikes caused some concern in the West, which is conducting its own anti-ISIL air campaign in Syria. However, Iran's foreign minister put their actions into doubt, actually saying that the US-led coalition is just for show.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="745"] A Russian Sukhoi Su-25 takes off from the Hmeimim air base in Syria. © Dmitriy Vinogradov / RIA Novosti[/caption]

RT: Is there any truth in what Iran's foreign minister said or is it just political posturing? What is America's priority - defeating ISIL or making sure Assad steps down?

SM: The Iranians don’t feel that the Americans have ever been sincere over ISIS. Otherwise, the US would be outraged at the Turkish president’s support for the organization and the support given by other regimes to Al-Qaeda in Syria as well as Yemen.

The US has been really trying to manage the situation. Right now we see that despite the fact that the Russians have just entered the combat - the air campaign against the extremists - they have had a much greater impact than the US has had for over a year now.

So, this is evidence in itself that the Americans are not serious and they basically want to contain ISIS rather than destroy it. The US, as soon as the Russians began bombing, spoke about civilian casualties. And the Americans bombed hospital in Afghanistan and they seem to have no problem, either the Americans or NATO, when the Saudis bombed weddings in Yemen. That obviously is not a major problem for these countries.

So, it is obvious that the Americans are not serious - when their allies bomb civilian targets, it is not a problem and when the Russian bomb the extremists, it is somehow a very dangerous escalation.

By RT