Iran: War on Terrorism Completed after US Ending Illegal Presence in Syria

Iranian Government Spokesman Ali Rabiyee undermined the US claim of killing ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, adding that the fight against Takfiri pro-terrorism ideology will be over only if Americans along with other illegal troops in Syria leave the Arab country.

In an opinion piece on Sunday, Rabiyee said the fight against the ISIL and its brand of terror will go on even after Syria retakes its territories from the outfit and will only end when American troops and all other foreign forces “illegally” present in the country leave.

He underlined that Baghdadi’s death, while symbolic, doesn’t mean the fight against the ISIL is completed, just as killing former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden didn’t bring terrorism to an end.

“Baghdadi’s death is the end of a symbol of injective-destructive terrorism: injecting a lethal ideology into the hearts of human societies and destroying the image of Islam in the eyes of the public,” he said. 

Rabiyee said that Baghdadi’s death, should bring to end US interventionism in the Middle East, noting that Washington’s policies are the main reason for the proliferation of the ISIL and other Takfiri terror outfits.

“However, just as bin Laden’ death didn’t root out terror, Baghdadi’s death won’t be the end of Daeshism either,” he added.

The main reason for this, Rabiyee argued, was the fact that Washington was not going to stop undertaking policies that nurture the same kind of extremist ideologies that Baghdadi represented.

“Deaths of bin Laden and Baghdadi only ended a chapter in the fight against the ISIL brand of terrorism,” he said, adding however that the concept is still thriving “through American policies and regional petrodollars.”

It is the “terror-nurturing swamps that need to be drained,” Rabiyee added. 

The Iranian official said the United States was doing its utmost to depict “invasion and cruel sanctions” as part of its struggle against terrorism, while in fact terrorism in the Middle East and Northern Africa is caused by “military-intelligence policies, plundering oil and supporting tyranny.”

He said the alleged killing of Baghdadi as part of a planned operation doesn’t take away from the “courageous efforts of the Syrian nation and its Iranian and Russian allies in liberating territories that the ISIL had seized with direct and indirect support from the US.”

The spokesman also said by killing Baghdadi, the US cannot hope to gloss over its role in creating bin Ladens and Baghdadis.

“We should not forget that in the eyes of the nations of the region, slaying one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists won’t wash off the hands of his supporters the blood of tens of thousands of people who lost their lives to the ISIL or lost the right to a prosperous life because of its long-time effects,” he added.

The spokesman further said Iran, as a country that has always been on the frontline of fighting terrorism, will ensure that the people of Syria are able to determine their fate free of foreign interventionism.

On Sunday, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced there’s no credible data to prove a successful American raid took place against the ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Earlier, Trump made a rare address from the White House informing the world that al-Baghdadi was eliminated in Northwest Syria in a “daring nighttime raid” with the involvement of US special forces, planes, helicopters and drones, RT reported.

The ISIL leader met his end “crying and screaming” in the face of the Americans’ might, he stated.

But the Russian Defense Ministry insisted that “there were legitimate questions and doubts about the very fact [of the US operation] and, especially, its success”.

Moscow pointed out that it recorded no US coalition airstrikes in the Idlib area in Northwest Syria on Saturday when the raid was held.

It also rejected Trump’s claims that Russian forces opened up the airspace under its control in Syria to American planes to facilitate the operation against the ISIL leader.

The defense ministry questioned the very possibility of al-Baghdadi’s presence in Idlib as the area is held by Al-Qaeda offshoot, al-Nusra Front, who have always been mortal enemies of the ISIL.

Moscow noted that the ISIL was crushed in Syria in early 2018 in a joint effort by the government in Damascus and the Russian forces, meaning that yet another report of al-Baghdadi’s demise “bears no effect on the operational situation in Syria or on the actions of the remaining terrorists in Idlib”.