United Nations: Syria’s foreign minister said on Monday that the US-led bombing campaign should be expanded to target other militant groups besides the Daesh group, noting that the fight against terrorism has aligned the Syrian regime with its Western and Arab opponents in a fight against a common enemy.

“They have the same ideology. They have the same extremist ideology,” Walid Mua’alem told The Associated Press in urging a widening of the US-led aerial campaign to include all Islamist rebel factions fighting President Bashar Al Assad’s government.

Speaking earlier at the UN General Assembly, the Syrian foreign minister denounced what he called the United States’ “dual policy” of striking at some militants in Syria while providing money, weapons and training to others, calling it a recipe for more violence and terrorism.

Such behaviour creates a “fertile ground” for the continued growth of extremism in countries including Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, Mua’alem told world leaders.

Washington and Arab allies opened their air assault against the extremist group last week in Syria, going after the group’s military facilities, training camps, heavy weapons and oil installations. The campaign expands upon the air strikes the United States has been conducting against the militants in Iraq since early August.

Some of the initial strikes in Syria targeted the Al Nusra Front, Al Qaida’s Syria affiliate, hitting several of its facilities and killing dozens of its fighters. Washington said it was trying to take out an Al Qaida cell known as the Khorasan Group that the US says was actively plotting attacks against Americans and Western interests.

On Monday, Mua’alem said the Daesh group, the Al Nusra Front and all Islamist groups fighting the Al Assad regime were on the same side and all should be hit.

Asked whether the strikes should include the loose umbrella rebel group known as the Free Syrian Army, which is backed by the US and its allies, he said that group “does not exist anymore.” In the interview, Mua’alem tried to position his country as being on the same side as the US-led coalition. Asked whether Syria considered itself now aligned with the West because both were fighting the same enemy, Mua’alem replied: “This is the fact.”

“We are fighting ISIS, they are fighting ISIS,” he said, referring to the Daesh group by one of its acronyms.

In an interview aired on Sunday, President Barack Obama acknowledged that the bombing campaign could ultimately help Al Assad stay in power. While the White House continues to call for Assad’s departure and has consistently condemned his actions in a three-year civil war, diplomatic negotiations to oust him have largely stalled and Obama has shown no appetite for using military power to force him out.

Given that the Daesh group is one of the Syrian government’s strongest opponents, the strikes have created an unexpected alignment between the US and Al Assad that the Syrian president is seeking to exploit in order to gain legitimacy.

Last month, Mua’alem warned at a news conference in Damascus that any strike that was not coordinated with the Al Assad government would be considered as aggression.

But on Monday he denied saying that coordination was necessary, adding that Damascus was satisfied with simply being informed of any US-led action, which he said the Obama administration did before the start last week of the aerial campaign in Syria.

He said the US government sent three separate messages to Syria 24 hours before it launched its first air strike on September 23. The messages were identical, he said: “We (the US) are not after the Syrian army or the Syrian government.”

He said there have been no further messages as the US-led coalition has ramped up its bombing campaign, “but it’s OK.”

“Until today, we are satisfied. As long as they are aiming at ISIS [Daesh] locations in Syria and in Iraq, we are satisfied,” he said.

Asked about Syria’s position on the five Arab countries that have joined the bombing campaign in Syria, Mua’alem said: “We were not asked about them, it’s up to them.”

“As long as they are hitting ISIS [Daesh]” Syria would not criticise their participation, he said.