Fighting IS: Syria reiterates need for its consent

Syria's Minister of Reconciliation Ali Haidar Thursday reiterated that any uncoordinated foreign airstrikes on Syrian territories without the consent of the Syrian government will be deemed as aggression.

"Any action of any kind without the consent of the Syrian government will be deemed as an aggression," Haidar said, one day after US President Barack Obama sanctioned airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) Sunni extremist group's positions in Syria.

Haidar warned that IS militants could be used by Western powers in the coming stage as a pretext for intervention in the region's countries unless there were true intentions to battle terrorism, Xinhua reported.

"The international effort has not yet amounted to the real stage of countering terrorism," he said, adding that talks about moderate opposition is not accurate as "whoever holds weapons is a terrorist".

Last month, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution on sanctions against extremist Islamist groups in Iraq and Syria in an attempt to cut off funding to these groups.