Top Commander: No Chance for Tehran-Washington Cooperation

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces General Hassan Firouzabadi rejected western media speculations about Tehran’s likely cooperation with the US over Iraq, and also stressed that Iran has not deployed troops in Iraq.
“There is no need to the presence of Iranian forces in Iraq,” General Firouzabadi told reporters on Wednesday, and added, “Cooperation between Iran and the US will never take place and is meaningless.”

He pointed to the capture of Iraq’s Nineveh province by the ISIL as the result of a premeditated and coordinated plan, and said, “Such works do not mean brave military operations.”

General Firouzabadi further blamed former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for having prepared the grounds for the presence of ISIL in the region by collecting cash from the regional countries, and said, “They prepared the grounds for Takfiris to gather naive Muslim youth with Jihadi motivations under the command of Baathists who had defected Iraq’s army.”

And these criminals (Takfiris), who do not have the power to fight in a war, have recruited the youth aged between 18 to 20 years, he added.

“The ISIL is a move by Israel and the US to create a safe margin for the Zionists against the resistance forces in the region and their recent attempt was a reaction to the recent victories of President Bashar Al-Assad in Syria and the (Syrian) people’s massive turnout in that country’s presidential election as well as victories … in Iraq,” General Firouzabadi said.

Yet, he said the ISIL’s attack has backfired as its uncalculated and angry move has resulted in the unity of religious leaders in Iraq.

Firouzabadi had also on Tuesday voiced opposition to any military meddling in Iraq, and warned that the US is attempting to pave the ground for its armed intervention in a bid to destroy the democratic trend in the country.

Firouzabadi underlined that the US which created terrorist groups during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as state secretary is displeased with the results of the recent elections in Iraq and is cancel election results.

“By any meddling and military intervention in Iraq, the Americans are seeking to attain ungracious goals, at the top of which undermining the elections in Iraq, and the crocodile tears of the Americans should not receive any attention, as they are still the allies of the sponsors and supporters of terrorists in the region,” Firouzabadi said.

He said that Iraq’s Muslim and revolutionary people and army can further strengthen their country using the current conditions.

General Firouzabadi said that Israel has created and supported the ISIL to ward off danger from its borders.

Firouzabadi made the remarks in Tehran and in reaction to the recent crimes committed by the ISIL in Iraq and its attacks in Syria since the start of the crisis in the Arab country in 2011.

“The ISIL is Israel’s cover up for distancing the revolutionary forces from Israeli borders and creating a margin of security for the Zionists, and the Zionist media have also admitted this fact,” he added.

Firouzabadi emphasized the necessity for the Iraqi people’s unity and resistance, and said, “The only way for the Iraqi people to overcome this problem is unity, resistance and suppression of these modern-day ignorance (darkness) fighters.”

Clashes between the ISIL and the Iraqi army continue after the former made gains in Nineveh and Tikrit following the capture of Iraq’s second biggest city Mosul.
Reports on Sunday said that the Iraqi army has taken back parts of Mosul as well.

More than 350 ISIL terrorists were killed in airstrikes in the Western province of al-Anbar, the Iraqi army’s regional operations command said.

Warplanes attacked the militants of the ISIL as they appeared to be parading near Fallujah, a city that has been under the control of the terrorists since January.

One of the ISIL leaders, identified as Yasser Nayi, was among those killed in the airstrike, the army said.