Special to WorldTribune.com

Teheran is prepared to take on “the growing menace of violent extremism,” Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said on July 3.

In a YouTube message recorded in English, Zarif said Iran is “ready to strike a balanced and good deal and open new horizons to address important common challenges. Our common threat today is the growing menace of violent extremism and outright barbarism.”

ISIL is a shared enemy for Iran and the United States and Zarif added that “the menace we’re facing – and I say we, because no one is spared – is embodied by the hooded men who are ravaging the cradle of civilization. To deal with this new challenge new approaches are badly needed.”

ISIL continued its rampage of atrocities, releasing a video on July 4 that showed 25 Syrian government soldiers being executed by teenagers in the ancient amphitheater of Palmyra. The executions took place shortly after ISIL captured Palmyra on May 21.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, ISIL has carried out more than 200 executions, including civilians, in and around Palmyra since it captured the city.

Syria’s antiquities director Mamoun Abdelkarim told AFP that ISIL’s use of the Roman theater to execute the soldiers “proves that these people are against humanity.”

Meanwhile, Iraq’s air force on July 4 dropped leaflets over Mosul that read: “The solution, with God’s help, is close,” and that an operation to liberate the city from ISIL would be broadcast on a new radio station, Mosul FM.

“Your armed forces are at the gate, cooperate with them,” the leaflets stated. ISIL captured Mosul last June in one day.

Iraqi and U.S. officials have said several times that an operation to take back Mosul was imminent but have yet to follow through.

  Iran offers quid pro quo for nuclear deal: Together we will confront ISIL’s ‘outright barbarism’, Javad Zarif, Mosul, Palmyra, WorldTribune.com