‘American exceptionalism’ hampers its war on terror – Lavrov

America’s consciousness of being an “exceptional” nation interferes with its ability to fight terrorism in every direction and by all means, Russia’s foreign minister has said, noting that Turkey is copying the behavior of its NATO mentor in Iraq.

"The factor that does no good to our cause is American exceptionalism. It sets a stamp upon how they decide to fight terrorism: in depth, in width and against individuals,” FM Sergey Lavrov said, adding that the Americans believe that they can admonish everybody else.

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The creation of a coalition on Syria is “absolutely” an American idea, Lavrov said, sharing that many of the US’s allies in NATO would prefer that the issue is dealt with the “proper way,” through UN institutions.

“But no – they say [Syrian President Bashar] Assad is illegitimate and there could be no deal with him,” Lavrov said in an interview with Zvezda TV.

The Russian foreign minister also pointed out that the international counter-terrorist coalition treats Iraq in a different way from Syria.

When Baghdad asked the international coalition to fight terrorists on its territory, then “we love Iraq,” in the meantime Syria is a dictatorship which days are numbered, so “we’re going to bomb it without asking for permission,” Lavrov said, referring to the US attitude toward the two countries.

Lavrov specifically singled out Turkey, saying that it mimicked this type of behavior when violating Iraq’s sovereign territorial integrity.

“Hadn't there been such arrogant approach on part of the US-led coalition toward bombing terrorists in Syria without the authorization of the country’s government, Turkey would not dare to behave in such an impudent way toward Iraq,” the Russian FM said.