Iran Top Security Official Blames West for Refugee Crisis in Region

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said the western states’ negligence in campaign against terrorist groups, specially the ISIL, has led to the current refugee problem.

Speaking in a meeting with Iraqi Parliament Speaker Salim al-Jabouri in Tehran on Saturday, the Iranian top security official described lack of serious fight on the part of the western states and the so-called US-led coalition against ISIL as the root cause of the rise of the refugee problem in Europe, and said, “Due to the growing wave of the refugees going to the western states today, the world public opinion has become acquainted with the sufferings and pains of the oppressed Syrian and Iraqi people more than ever.”

He referred to the safe crossing of the ISIL terrorists from foreign states into Iraq and Syria and their lavish using of these countries’ financial and oil revenues, and said, “A suspicious resolve is attempting to protect the insecurity, instability and crisis points in the region by managing the ISIL terrorist stream.”

Shamkhani, meantime, expressed confidence that Iraq would gain victory over the terrorists and revive its position in the region with growing progress and development.

His remarks came as Europe is gripped by a growing refugee crisis, and Hungary is bearing the brunt remains of a wave of thousands of refugees fleeing war, bombing and violence in the Middle East and North Africa.

Tens of thousands of migrants are breaking into the European Union, using Hungary as a transit country as they seek to travel to richer countries such as Germany, Austria or Sweden.

In relevant remarks on Thursday, Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezayee voiced concern about the situation of Iraqi, Syrian and Yemeni refugees, and took the US and Israel responsible for their displacement.

“The US and Israel are the main culprits behind the Yemeni, Syrian and Iraqi people’s displacement,” Rezayee told reporters in the Central city of Qom.

He blasted the ignorance of those countries which claim to be advocates of human rights of the situation of Middle-Eastern refugees, and said they themselves should be blamed for the displacement of the Iraqi, Yemeni and Syrian refugees.