Alwaght- Iran has called on the United States to ask its regional allies to stop supporting terrorist groups instead of making malicious claims against the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi made the remark on Saturday in reaction to earlier comments by US Defense Secretary James Mattis who accused Tehran of sponsoring terrorism.
“We urge the American official to — instead of making unwarranted and biased accusations against Iran — oblige some of the countries in the region that are friendly and close to the US and whose unwavering and widespread support for terrorist groups is clearly evident to halt their financial, ideological, and military support for these terrorist-Takfiri outfits,” he said.
During a press conference in London on Friday, Mattis had said that North Korea was the number-one threat to the US. He was then asked about his comments back in 2012, when he enumerated the three primary threats the US faced as being “Iran, Iran, Iran.”
“At the time when I spoke about Iran I was a commander of US central command and that (Iran) was the primary exporter of terrorism; frankly, it was the primary state sponsor of terrorism and it continues that kind of behavior today,” he said in the Friday remarks, trying to explain his apparent shift of opinion.
Qassemi described Mattis’ new claim against Iran as baseless adding that Iran believed that one main reason for the failure of the international efforts to combat terrorism was “giving a false address” regarding financial and ideological sources of terrorism.
The senior Iranian diplomat noted that Iran had itself been a victim of terrorism and had been involved in concerted efforts in the war on terror.
Main US allies in the region especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar are the main sponsors of Takfiri terrorism financially and ideologically.
Takfirism, basically accusing other Muslims of apostasy, is a characteristic of many terrorist groups globally including ISIS, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Boko Haram and Al Shabab. These Takfiri terrorist groups are nourished by Wahhabism, the official extremist ideology dominating the Saudi regime and exported by the regime’s clerics globally.
