FM: West Has Strengthened Extremists

TEHRAN (Press TV) – Iranian Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif said applying double standards and wrong policies has strengthened extremist groups in the Middle East.

Date: 21 September 2014 - 21:35

News ID: ۵۳۹۰

"Wrong policies of the past years have emboldened terrorist and extremist groups,” Zarif said at a meeting with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop in New York.
"Today, confronting this inhumane phenomenon requires adoption of a unified strategy and setting out comprehensive and new guidelines,” IRNA quoted Zarif as saying.
In order to find a solution to extremism and terrorism, the "existing realities must be taken into consideration seriously”, he noted.
Zarif also stated that Iran has been serious in helping neighboring Iraq boost security and stability.
The two foreign ministers also made comments about the issue of immigration and problems about a number of Iranians who have immigrated to Australia.
Zarif also discussed the issue of Takfiri terror in Iraq with the UN special representative for the Arab country.
He met with Nickolay Mladenov, who is the special representative of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Iraq, on the sidelines a UN meeting in New York.
Iraq has witnessed savage activities, including beheadings and mass executions, by the ISIL Takfiri terrorists over the past few months.
"Iran as well as all Iraq’s neighbors can contribute to stability of Iraq,” the UN official told Press TV after the meeting with the Iranian foreign minister.
Mladenov went on to say that the new government in Baghdad has an "important agenda” to bring Iraq together to "restore security to the country, to implement reforms that address the concerns of all Iraqis”.
The UN official added that security can be restored with the help of "all Iraq’s neighbors” and their cooperation with the Iraqi government.
Iran’s foreign minister, for his part, reiterated that the challenges Iraq and the region face will not be resolved by military intervention of foreign countries.
Zarif added that it is up to the Iraqi government to provide stability to the people of Iraq. He said Iran and other regional countries should provide assistance to Iraq without undermining its sovereignty.
Iran and the United States share a common enemy in the ISIL, but a deep-seated lack of trust keeps them from joining hands to confront the terrorists.
Iraq's new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, made his frustration clear in a recent interview, saying Iran’s refusal to attend Paris talks aimed at combating the militant threat had left him "in a very difficult position".
"I actually find it puzzling that we hold a conference in Paris to help Iraq and to fight terrorism and ... the biggest neighbor of Iraq — Iran — is excluded," he said.
Iran is convinced the United States wants to use the fight against ISIL as a pretext to strike Syrian President Bashar Assad. Rejecting any cooperation with Assad, Washington is planning airstrikes in Syria.
Iranian officials are even skeptical the U.S. really opposes ISIL, since it is fighting Assad, whom the U.S. wants removed from power. Last Tuesday, the top commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps dismissed the anti-Islamic State group coalition as "a show".
"There is not much hope in this coalition since they've set it up for their own objectives," Gen. Muhammad Ali Jafari said. "We have serious doubts that this coalition seeks to destroy the Islamic State."
FM Zarif also has ruled out cooperating with the United States. Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday in New York, he expressed doubts about Washington's willingness and ability to fight the group "across the board".
Nevertheless, Iran has already been closely involved in the fight. Iran has publicly confirmed that it has provided military advice to Iraqis including Kurds to fight the ISIL militants but has denied sending forces or shipping weapons.
Zarif says Iran's assistance — without any troops — helped Iraq prevent ISIL from taking over Baghdad and the Kurdish capital Arbil.
Ayatollah Khamenei said last week the U.S. is "seeking a pretext" for military intervention in Iraq and Syria and warned that if the Americans go ahead with it "they will suffer the same problems they faced in Iraq in the past 10 years".
Despite their long decades of enmity, Iran and the United States have been united by a common enemy before: Afghanistan's Taliban. When the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, Iran coordinated with it, especially on operations in the western part of the country near its border. The cooperation ended badly, however, when then-President George W. Bush branded Iran part of an "axis of evil", infuriating Tehran.
Iran's deputy foreign minister, Amir Abdollahian, said his country won't wait for a coalition to act against extremists. He said the best way to fight the group is "to assist Iraqi and Syrian governments, which are actively involved in the fight against terrorism".