Iran Hits Back at US Defense Secretary for Terrorism Claims
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Foreign Ministry dismissed as baseless the allegations that Tehran sponsors terrorism raised by US Defense Secretary Mattis, who is dubbed "Mad Dog", saying the US government and Mattis himself are the very epitome of terrorism and violation of human rights.
The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects the baseless and interventionist remarks made by James Mattis on “regime change” in the country, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday.
Today’s regional and international terrorism and extremism are deeply rooted in Washington’s unwise policy of supporting the sponsors of terrorism as well as the Israeli regime’s state terrorism, he noted, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website.
The spokesman also categorically rejected the ‘baseless’ and ‘imaginary’ US plot to embroil Iran in the assassination case of a foreign ambassador in Washington, saying the US itself was behind the terrorist attack on the ambassador.
“This is not the first time that the US Defense Secretary is accusing Iran and its democratic Establishment of sponsoring terrorism. This comes as the US and its Defense Secretary are the very epitome of terrorism and violation of human rights,” Qassemi added.
“The people of the region and the world have not yet forgotten their role in the massacre of innocent Iraqis in Fallujah and Haditha,” he went on to say.
Qassemi finally pointed to Washington’s threadbare policy of sowing the seeds of discord between the Iranian nation and government over the past decades and stressed that such ploys are futile.
“The US Secretary of Defense tries to portray the Islamic Republic of Iran as an unpopular government by closing his eyes to the huge and glorious turnout of the Iranians (over 70 percent) in the recent presidential election,” Qassemi said.
Rather, he added, the US supports regimes in the Middle East and the world which have never heard anything about democracy and elections.
The comments came after Mattis accused Iran of sponsoring terrorism in an interview with the newspaper of a local American high school.
Mattis has once against accused Tehran of trying to murder an Arab ambassador in Washington, D.C., and of ordering the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
The Pentagon chief’s hawkish attitudes towards Iran are not new. US President Donald Trump has even used the nickname Mad Dog at every opportunity to refer to Mattis. The general’s battlefield call sign was “Chaos.”
