Myanmar’s regime is a US puppet: Iran’s Velayati

A senior Iranian official says Muslim countries will not remain silent on a deadly crackdown launched by the US-backed regime in Myanmar on minority Rohingya Muslims in the Southeast Asian state.

“Myanmar’s regime is a US puppet,” Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said on Thursday.

“A person, who has unfairly received the Nobel Peace Prize, is today taking these measures, but Muslim societies won’t be silent and will curb this dictator regime through international bodies,” he added.

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has taken almost no action to end the ongoing violence against the Rohingya Muslims, triggering international outcry.

Myanmar’s government has laid a siege to the country’s western Rakhine State where the Rohingya are concentrated, with horrific violence taking place against the minority Muslims.

Soldiers and extremist Buddhists have reportedly been killing or raping the Muslims and setting their homes on fire. The United Nations Children’s Fund said up to 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar and entered neighboring Bangladesh since late August, when the latest bout of violence erupted.

Tehran has called for a visit by an Iranian Foreign Ministry delegation to Myanmar to discuss ways to end the plight of the Rohingya Muslims.

Iran’s Red Crescent is also preparing to send a shipment of humanitarian aid for those stranded on the border with Bangladesh.

Earlier this week, Ayatollah Khamenei called on the Islamic governments to exert political and economic pressure on Myanmar’s “cruel” regime to end the massacre.

US ban on aircraft sales to Iran breaches JCPOA

Elsewhere in his remarks, Velayati said a recent US move to block sales of commercial aircraft to Iran has “violated” the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

On Wednesday, the US House of Representatives voted in favor of new measures that would specifically prevent the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) from clearing licenses to allow aircraft sales to Iran.

“A ban on selling aircraft to Iran shows that we should not trust the US and its allies,” he said.

The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries — namely the US, Russia, China, France, and Britain plus Germany — in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016. Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.

The removal of sanctions allowed Iran to purchase hundreds of commercial aircraft from Airbus, Boeing and other companies.

However, officials in the administration of US President Donald Trump have recently been sparing no efforts to undermine the nuclear deal.