Taliban-Like Extremists in Iraq Stooge of US, West: Iranian Politician
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Director of the Strategic Research Center of Iran's Expediency Council Ali Akbar Velayati said like Taliban, the extremist groups in Iraq are also stooges of the United States and the West.
Velayati made the comment at the China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) on Tuesday during his visit to Beijing, adding that the Americans tried to change the elections results in their own favor.
“After the Iraqi nation’s victory in the elections, they encouraged the defeated insurgents to rebel against the government,” Velayati emphasized.
Former Iranian foreign minister noted that the way the Western countries support terrorist groups such as Taliban and the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) reflects their worries about the victories of real Islamists in the region and their close ties with Iran.
“As the Americans have also confessed, they have made mistakes in their calculations in the Middle East and they have conceded total defeats in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, etc.” underscored Velayati. He gave assurance that Iraqi nation and government will overcome the current crisis.
In early June, following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, ISIL seized control of most parts of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, and its surrounding Nineveh province. The terrorists’ attacks have reportedly forced more than half a million people in and around Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, to flee their homes. The Takfiri (extremist) militants have vowed to march toward the capital, Baghdad.
Presently south of Mosul, these ISIL militants are very close to the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Following a religious decree by the Iraqi senior cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, volunteers from different Iraqi cities have been shipped to the front in order to defend the capital and other cities.
Baghdad has accused Saudi Arabia of funding the crimes that the ISIL have committed in Iraq in the last few days.
