US seeks to spread violence in Muslim states: Velayati

A senior Iranian official has slammed the United States and its allies for attempting to promote violence inside the Muslim countries, saying such a plot is meant to taint the image of Islam.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said Wednesday that attempts to spread violence and extremism in the Islamic countries are a new plot hatched by the US and its Western allies to depict Islam as a violent religion.

With such plots, they seek to portray a “violent” and “irrational” image of Islam for the public opinion, Velayati said in a meeting with Mohammad Mohaqiq, a senior aide to Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, in Tehran.

The senior Iranian official described as “unprecedented” in the world’s history the carnage of innocents at the hands of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group, which mainly operates in Syria and Iraq, but has also spread its presence to Afghanistan.

Pointing to former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s admission in her memoir of Washington’s support for the Taliban militants in Afghanistan, Velayati said Western governments never support groups like Daesh through official channels.

He also touched upon relations between Iran and Afghanistan, saying the two neighboring countries enjoy strategic ties as their fates are intertwined.

He said there is a fertile ground for Iran and Afghanistan to engage in bilateral and multilateral cooperation, saying some governments outside of the region have tried to sow discord among the two neighbors.

The Afghan official, for his part, expressed concern about the deteriorating security situation in the Middle East over the past years, saying the problems in Iraq and Syria have unfortunately reached Afghanistan.

Mohaqiq said Iran and Afghanistan should increase their cooperation to find a solution to the current crisis, adding that Tehran can take the leading role in the regional drive against extremist groups.