Former Envoy: Anti-ISIL Coalition Meant to Help Stop Global Hatred for US

Former Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi rapped the US and its allies for creating terrorist groups in the region, and said the US has formed a so-called coalition against the ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) in a bid to save its face.
“The ISIL is not a self-driven group, and given the extensive possibilities provided to the group, it is obvious that it is supported by the powers and certain Arab regional states,” Roknabadi told FNA on Saturday.

“It is natural that the world public opinion can never accept that a group with such extensive type of activities isn’t affiliated to the US,” he added.

Roknabadi underlined the world nations’ hatred for the ISIL and its supporters, and said the US has raised the idea of forming the anti-ISIL coalition to get rid of this hatred.

“This project is the continuation of the same double-standard policies of the US and its allies in the region and given the awakening of the world public opinion, such ideas and intentions prove to be a failure even before they come into action,” he added.

NATO heads of state convened in the Welsh city of Newport on 4-5 September. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told foreign and defense ministers participating in the NATO summit that the US was forming a broad international coalition against ISIL.

Ministers from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark met in Wales to hammer out a strategy for battling ISIL, but the policy was questioned by many regional officials and political leaders.

In relevant remarks on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham questioned the goal of the so-called international coalition formed to fight the ISIL terrorist group, and lashed out at Washington and its allies for pursuing a double-standard policy towards campaign against terrorism in various countries.

“The so-called international coalition to fight the ISIL group, which came into existence following a NATO summit in Wales and is taking shape, is shrouded in serious ambiguities and there are severe misgivings about its determination to sincerely fight the root causes of terrorism,” Afkham said.

“Some of the countries in the coalition are among financial and military supporters of terrorists in Iraq and Syria and some others have reneged on their international duties in the hope of (seeing) their desired political changes in Iraq and Syria,” she added.

She noted that the double standards adopted by these countries in dealing with extremism have contributed to the spread of terrorism across the world.

Afkham also rejected as baseless any report that Iran and the US are in talks on fighting the Takfiri militants.

“In the negotiations with the US, no issue but the issue of (Iran’s) nuclear energy has been discussed, and the US side has merely talked about its positions regarding the ISIL group,” the Iranian official said.

Also on Wednesday, Iran’s former Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi blasted the US for supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group, and said that Washington’s recent airstrikes on the ISIL positions in Iraq were no more than a political showoff.

“The recent moves by the US are theatrical,” Brigadier General Vahidi, who is now the head of the Iranian Armed Forces’ Strategic Studies Center, told reporters.

He said the ISIL was just a protégé of the US and Israel, stating that the terrorist group has staged operations only in those places favored by the Israeli regime. “The US hues and cries about the formation of an anti-ISIL coalition is because they now see the terrorist group is getting out of their control.”