Regional Extremism Result of US Occupation of Iraq

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 prepared the ground for growth and emergence of terrorism in the region, urging the international community to engage in a genuine battle against Takfiri groups.

“We are all faced with extremism and terrorism that is emanating from years of occupation of Iraq and the situation that came after that, the rising extremism after the US occupation. And now that threat is threatening us all, particularly in Central Asia and the Caucasus region,” Zarif told the Tass news agency in an interview published on Friday.

He added, “And the international community will need to learn, particularly those who talk a lot, about fighting extremism, terrorism, need to learn that they need to be engaged, they need to be serious, they need to act rather than simply take political decisions in dealing with that.”

Following is the full text of the interview.

Q: What is Iran’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

A: We believe that our region does not need any more conflicts. We are all faced with extremism and terrorism that is emanating from years of occupation of Iraq and the situation that came after that, the rising extremism after the US occupation. And now that threat is threatening us all, particularly in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. We are all faced with the threat of extremism, so we need to set up all disputes to peaceful means, to respect international law and principles of the UN Charter.

This is why immediately after the most recent outbreak of hostilities we called the two sides, our defense minister called the two defense ministers, I called the foreign minister of Armenia and had a meeting in Ramsar with the foreign minister of Azerbaijan.
The president also called both presidents calling for an end to hostilities. We are very happy to see an end to hostilities right now and cessation of hostilities or a ceasefire. We hope this would be the prelude to serious negotiations in order to resolve this issue. Our region requires cooperation between everybody. We believe Armenia as a neighbor and Azerbaijan as a close friend of Iran need to have good relations and we hope, we support all efforts aimed at resolving this problem.