Iranian Foreign Minister: Our Help Has Been Crucial in Iraq’s Fight Against ISIS

ZARIF: "We do not have forces on the ground in Iraq. We have always had advisors helping the Iraqi government and the Iraqi army. We were the first to come to the assistance of the Iraqis, both in Baghdad as well as in Irbil, when the ISIS started moving in in massive numbers last summer. So we've been there, we've been assisting the Iraqi people, everybody knows that without our assistance, things would have been different in Iraq. We are in Iraq in terms of advisors and other support, but without military personnel on the ground, fighting forces on the ground, as you say, boots on the ground, in order to help this very serious global fight against these extremist and terrorist groups.

We hope that this could unite Iraqis, because -- and all peoples of the region -- because in spite of the short-sighted attempts in the past, now everybody has come to the conclusion that these extremist forces are a threat to everybody. They cannot be contained in Syria or in Iraq, or in only several countries in this region. This is a global threat. You see the implications in Europe, you see the fact that they are recruiting from Europe. So this is a global problem, it requires global cooperation and global work."