BREAKING NEWS

Iran FM tells European lawmakers Islamist militancy also their problem

BRUSSELS - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told European Union lawmakers on Tuesday militant Islam was also a European problem as he defended Iran's involvement in Syria's civil war on the side of President Bashar Assad.
European parliamentarians quizzed Zarif about alleged human rights violations in Iran, Iranian defense spending and nuclear activity and Tehran's stance on Middle East conflicts that have killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven millions from their homes, spurring a large influx of refugees into Europe.
Radicalized European citizens, often with Muslim immigrant backgrounds, have gone to Syria and Iraq to fight for Islamic State militants, who claimed responsibility for the shooting and bombing rampage in Paris that killed 130 people in November.