Alwaght- Well known Iranian General Qassem Soleimani said the Islamic Republic does not seek materialistic interests in supporting neighboring Iraq and Syria or the Palestinian cause.
Major General Qassem Soleimani commands Iran's Quds Force that is a special forces unit of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) responsible for their extraterritorial operations, including Tehran's advisory military presence in Syria and Iraq.
“When we entered Iraq, we didn’t differentiate between our interests and those of Iraq; and we were not after [taking control of] oil wells or seizing cities like Mosul or Kirkuk. We did not and do not have monetary demands, either,” Press TV cited General Soleimani as saying on Sunday.
He also said that Iran did not support the Palestinian people because of “Shiite interests.” Almost all Palestinians are Sunnis, he said, and yet “we defend them.”
The senior commander also said that in spite of the violent capacities of the ISIS terrorist group and the creation of such other militant outfits as Jaish al-Islam and Jaish al-Hur bu Saudis in Syria, Iran had been able to bring stability to Syria.
Referring to ISIS terrorists, he said, “These are people who send a hundred suicide bombers to the battlefield every day.”
“It was with religion that we fought against their religious war, not with military power,” the Iranian commander said.
ISIS launched a terrorist offensive inside Iraq in 2014. It swiftly took over territory in the Arab country and posed a threat to seize the capital, Baghdad, too. Iran then offered advisory military assistance to both the central government in Baghdad and the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan, helping them both maintain ground and win back territory lost to the terrorist group.
In Syria, too, Iran has been offering advisory support to the government. An armed conflict broke out in Syria in 2011 and soon transformed into a foreign-backed militancy by a hodgepodge of terrorist groups, including ISIS.
Major General Soleimani said the Iranian government had succeeded in transcending matters of language and race, thus bringing about stability.
He said Iran was now enjoying a status of real power in the region.
