Rouhani: US presence in the region exacerbates terrorism crisis

President Hassan Rouhani made the remarks in an exclusive interview with NBC news channel.

Rouhani told the NBC that the US-led coalition against the ISIL group was not a serious movement and added that US had been present in the region since 2001 to fight terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan but it not only did not solved the terrorism problem but exacerbated the crisis.

Asked about the extremists’ beheading of American James Foley and Steven Sotloff and Briton David Haines, Rouhani said ISIL’s actions were opposite to Islamic tenets.

“They want to kill humanity,” Rouhani told NBC and added that “from the viewpoint of the Islamic tenets and culture, killing an innocent people equals the killing of the whole humanity. And therefore, the killing and beheading of innocent people in fact is a matter of shame for ISIL and it’s the matter of concern and sorrow for humanity.”

He said that Iran would give Iraq any support demanded to fight ISIL, “but holy shrines in Iraq should be protected.”

Asked about nuclear talks he said the negotiations could still lead to a resolution. “Maybe the time could be negotiable, either today or tomorrow; however, we have no doubt that the only solution to the nuclear issue goes through negotiation,” he said.

Iranian nuclear negotiators arrived in New York on Tuesday for talks on Tehran nuclear issue with the western side on the sidelines of UN General Assembly.