Senior Iranian commander Major General Qassem Soleimani says the United States is using the Daesh Takfiri group as an instrument against Muslims.
General Soleimni said on Tuesday that the Daesh Takfiri group is the creature of Washington, noting that “the US plans to maintain Daesh so that there would be a need for US among Muslims.”
Th commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps made the remarks while briefing members of Iran’s senior clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, on the developments in the region.
The senior military commander added that Iran has foiled Washington’s plans in the region.
He went on to say that the United States has turned this policy into a “lever” to achieve its goals in the region.
The Daesh (ISIL) Takfiri group has been operating in the region and especially in Syria and Iraq, and committing heinous crimes including rape, execution, torture and slavery against all communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, and Christians in areas they have overrun.
Since August 2014, the United States and some of its allies have been conducting airstrikes against what they describe as Daesh positions in Iraq. Since last September, some members of the US-led coalition have also been pounding purported Daesh positions inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.
This is while most members of the same alliance have long been among the staunch supporters of the Takfiri extremist groups operating to topple the Syrian government over the past four years.
Saudi fear
Elsewhere in his remarks, the senior Iranian commander pointed to the Saudi aggression against Yemen and hailed the Yemeni Ansarullah fighters’ resistance against the deadly onslaught.
“Ansarullah is a popular current and movement that many Yemeni people have been following,” he stressed.
Pointing to the reasons behind the Saudi aggression against Yemen, General Soleimani said, “Saudi Arabia is afraid of Ansarullah’s rise to power and [has therefore] imposed this war against the Yemeni people.”
Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26 – without a UN mandate – in a bid to undermine Yemen’s Houthi Ansarullah movement and restore power to the country’s fugitive former president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.
Over 4,300 people have been killed in the Yemeni conflict, the World Health Organization said on August 11. Local Yemeni sources, however, say the fatality figure is much higher.