Kerry: Iran strikes on Islamic State would be 'positive'

BRUSSELS, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, without acknowledging Iranian airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq, said Wednesday they would be "positive."

Kerry spoke after a meeting in Brussels of his counterparts from members of the coalition of countries put together by the United States to fight IS. Iran, which blames the United States for the current situation in Iraq, is not a member of the coalition.

"If Iran is taking on (IS) in some particular place... and it has an impact, then it's going to be net effect (that) is positive," Kerry said.

An Iranian fighter jet was photographed over Iraq in late November, although it was originally misidentified. Hamid Reza Taraghi, an Iranian politician, told the New York Times that his country had indeed launched airstrikes in the buffer zone it has declared along its border with Iraq and said dozens of IS militants were killed.

"We do not tolerate any threats within the buffer zone, and these targets were in the vicinity of the buffer zone," Taraghi said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi praised Iran recently for coming to his country's aid while the United States "hesitated."

"And the reason Iran did not hesitate to help us was because they consider ISIS as a threat to them, not only to us," he told a TV interviewer.