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(Bloomberg) — Russia is pushing for a broad coalition to fight Islamic State, including Iraqi and Syrian government forces, and rejects continuing pressure from the U.S. and its allies for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said air strikes conducted by a U.S.-led coalition aren’t enough to defeat the Sunni Muslim extremist group, which controls swathes of Syria and Iraq. An “anti-terrorist front” with Iraqi, Syrian and Kurdish ground forces is needed, Lavrov said Monday after meeting his U.S. and Saudi counterparts in Doha, Qatar.

Lavrov criticized a U.S. decision to authorize the use of air strikes to defend American-trained Syrian rebels against Assad’s forces as “counterproductive” because it sabotages efforts to combat Islamic State, according to a ministry transcript.

Russia’s push underscores conflicting strategies among global powers trying to confront Islamic State, whose expansion has worsened a conflict that’s killed 220,000 people and forced millions from their homes. Russia, which brokered a 2013 deal disarming Syria’s chemical arsenal to forestall American air strikes against Assad, wants to shore up its Middle Eastern ally. The U.S. has sought to cut off outside financial and other resources to Assad and supports rebels who are trying to overthrow him.

Approaching Assad

“The danger now is that Islamic State may seize the whole of Syria,” Fyodor Lukyanov, head of the Moscow-based Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a research group which advises the Russian government, said by phone. “We need to find a way to forge a common front against Islamic State, but the main problem remains disagreement over Assad.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said ahead of the meeting with Lavrov and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir that his country’s policy of seeking the Syrian leader’s removal hasn’t changed.

“We believe that Assad and the Assad regime long ago lost legitimacy, in part because of his regime’s continued brutality against the Syrian people themselves,” Kerry told reporters in Doha. “And that has been a magnet for foreign fighters, drawing them to Syria. And since there is no military solution to Syria’s challenges, there has to obviously be a political solution.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the idea of a coalition against Islamic State when he met Saudi King Salman’s son, Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman, in St. Petersburg in June. Saudi Arabia supports the rebels fighting against Assad, who is backed by Russia and Saudi archrival Iran.

Russia sponsored a meeting last month between top Syrian and Saudi officials, Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper reported July 31. Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau, traveled to Riyadh aboard a private Russian plane to meet Prince Mohammed, the newspaper said.

Russia will continue to promote dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition under the auspices of the United Nations, said Lavrov, urging an immediate end to “outside meddling” in the country.

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Meyer in Moscow at hmeyer4@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net Michael Winfrey, Paul Abelsky