Analyst: Armed Rebels in Syria, Iraq Benefit from Same Backers
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Certain regional countries sponsoring terrorists in the fight against Syria’s government are at the same time carrying out a plan to undermine Iraq by supporting the same notorious terrorist groups, a Middle East affairs analyst said.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the two major countries that are seeking to overthrow the Syrian government, Hossein Rouyvaran told the Tasnim News Agency on Tuesday.
He said the very same countries plus the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are attempting to change the conditions in Iraq as well by providing supports for the terrorist groups.
Pointing to the atrocities committed by the armed members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group in Syria and neighboring Iraq, Rooivaran explained that Riyadh has ostensibly passed laws against the terrorist group but the reality is that Saudi Arabia is funding a project to topple the Syrian government and change the conditions in Iraq.
His comments came after armed members of the ISIL terrorist group on Tuesday seized Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul.
The foreign-backed ISIL terrorists, along with the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra front, are among the main groups that have breed violence in Syria over the past three years.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. The UN says more than 130,000 people have been killed since the beginning of the unrest in 2011. More than 2.2 million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries while an estimated 4.25 million have been displaced internally.