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© AFP
Russia's Defense Ministry is ready to hold talks with the US in helping them fight ISIS in in Iraq's western regions, Russian First Deputy Defense Minister General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff, said at an annual briefing for foreign military attaches on Wednesday.

"The attention of the international counterterrorism coalition should be focused on how to destroy militants in Iraq's western regions in order to prevent the ISIS comeback to Syria and how to exclude the revival of Islamic Caliphate there, but not on deployment of own military bases in Syria," Gerasimov said.

"We are ready to hold dialogue and join American counterparts in solving this issue," he said.