Iran

Iranian Speaker Raps US Anti-ISIL Coalition as Irrational Move

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Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said the US coalition and its airstrikes on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) positions would prove inefficient and only cause the terrorist group to spread and grow.
“The US logic for annihilating the ISIL group will not result in reforms in the Middle-East and won’t destroy the ISIL, rather it will cause an overwhelming fire of hatred in this region,” Larijani said, addressing a ceremony in the Northeastern city of Mashhad on Saturday.

“Certainly, the ISIL won’t be annihilated by the US air attacks since bombardment cannot kill the guerillas in the houses,” he added, explaining why he believes that the US strategy is irrational.

The US, which has failed in implementing its plots against the region through the UN and the Security Council, has now created a coalition against Syria, Larijani said, warning that igniting the fire of hatred in the region will backfire on Washington.

He underlined that the US policies in fighting the ISIL through air attacks will further spread the ISIL terrorist moves in the region.

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.”

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