Iraqis’ resistance against terror increased their power: Iran’s Larijani

Iran’s parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, says the Iraqi people’s battle against terrorists has made them stronger and proved to the world that nobody can take any aggressive action against their country.

“The Iraqi nation’s resistance against terrorists showed to the world that Iraq is powerful and nobody can invade it,” Larijani said at a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Tehran on Thursday.

The top Iranian parliamentarian said the Iraqis “cut the hand of terrorists” from their country and managed to prevent its disintegration “by taking necessary measures.”

Referring to the US and Israeli moves in Iraq, Larijani said, “They pursue certain objectives the most important of which is to prevent the presence and activities of the popular armed forces, because they want to damage the power of Muslims by doing this.”

Abadi, for his part, said the main factor, which led Iraq to victory, was the unity among all Iraqi people, noting that even the recent crisis in northern Iraq and the secession vote in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region failed to weaken that unity.

According to the Iraqi constitution, he added, the central government is responsible for maintaining the security of border regions and Iraq is a united and integrated country.

Touching on the annihilation of terrorists in Iraq, Abadi said Baghdad was trying to restore stability to the region, so that, displaced people could return to their homes.

Earlier on Thursday, the Iraqi premier met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.

Over the past three years, the Iraqi army and allied volunteer fighters have been leading a major operation to rid the country of Daesh Takfiri terrorists. At Baghdad’s request, Iran has been providing military advisory assistance to Iraq in its counter-terrorism campaign.

Iraq recently witnessed simmering tensions over a controversial referendum on the secession of the Kurdistan Region, which was only supported by Israel.

The Kurdistan Regional Government held the plebiscite on September 25 in defiance of strong objection from Baghdad and Iraq’s neighbors, particularly Iran and Turkey. The critics warned that the vote complicated the security situation in the Arab country.

The Iraqi government responded to the referendum by taking a number of punitive measures, including taking back positions held by Kurdish forces since 2014, when they joined the fight against Daesh terrorists.

Under mounting pressure, the Kurdish leadership has offered to freeze the results of the vote and engage in dialog with the central government, but Baghdad wants the results to be totally canceled.