Iran on Sunday accused the US of not taking the threat from Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria seriously, and charged that US aid had previously helped the jehadists.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif levelled the accusations despite an expanding US air campaign in Iraq since August 8 that provided key support in relieving a jehadist siege of a Shia Turkmen town north of Baghdad late last month. Iran and the US have a shared opposition to IS, which controls a swathe of both Iraq and neighbouring Syria, but both Governments deny cooperating militarily against the jehadists.