Updated 9:11 p.m. Moscow Time
UNITED NATIONS, September 24 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will support a US-drafted UN Security Council Resolution mandating a global crackdown on foreign extremist fighters, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Wednesday.
The resolution is expected to be adopted later on Wednesday at a special session of the Security Council hosted by US President Barack Obama.
"We will back this document as it takes into consideration our priorities, and we have taken part in preparing its text," Gatilov told reporters in New York.
The draft document will reportedly invoke Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which gives the Security Council authority to enforce decisions with sanctions or use of force against any of the 193 UN member nations that fail to abide by it.
In a speech before the UN General Assembly earlier on Wednesday, the US president called on the world to stand united against the threat of the Islamic State insurgency, which he stigmatized as a "brand of evil" and "network of death."
Obama said all nations should join forces in degrading and ultimately dismantling the extremist organization, which has been using online propaganda to "coerce" young people to travel abroad to fight its wars.
The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has been fighting against the Syrian government since 2012. In June 2014, the group extended its attacks to northern and western Iraq, declaring a caliphate on the territories over which it had control.
On September 10, US President Barack Obama also unveiled his strategy for defeating the militant group, which includes the establishment of an international anti-IS coalition. The president also authorized US airstrikes against IS positions in Syria, while simultaneously continuing airstrikes in Iraq, which were launched by the country in August.
