US plotting to reshape Mideast, Africa: Analyst

The United States has been promoting Islamophobia as part of its long-term plan to reshape the Middle East and Africa, an analyst tells Press TV.

“There is a clear policy by the United States to redraw the geopolitical map not only of the Middle East but of Africa,” Jamal Wakim told Press TV in an interview.

He said the Unites States has sought to “drive a wedge between Europe and Africa” by supporting “Takfiri version of Islam represented by groups like Boko Haram, like al-Qaeda.”

Wakim added that the United States has been also nurturing “Islamophobia in Europe” in a bid to cause division in the Mediterranean and to “use the pretext of terrorism in Sub-Saharan countries in order to justify colonial intervention by the Western powers.”

The analyst stressed the need for “calls for awareness” regarding the US divisive plot.

He said the “true nature of the conflict going on in Sub-Saharan Africa” should be laid bare to public, adding that terrorist groups like Boko Haram “are using Islam as an ideological banner for their actions.”

Boko Haram — whose name means “Western education is forbidden” — says its goal is to overthrow the Nigerian government.

It has claimed responsibility for a number of deadly gun and bomb attacks in various parts of Nigeria since 2009.

Over the past four years, violence in the north of Africa’s most populous country has claimed the lives of more than 3,600 people.