International Shia News Agency

President Rouhani: IS a concern for mankind

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Iranian President Dr Hassan Rouhani has criticised the United States for its policies regarding the IS terrorist group which he said were seeking to “kill humanity”. Speaking in an interview with NBC television in Tehran on Wednesday before heading to the United Nations ahead of next week’s general assembly, the Iranian President appeared to question whether the US could achieve victory over IS without putting boots on the ground.

“Are Americans afraid of giving casualties on the ground in Iraq? Are they afraid of their soldiers being killed in the fight they claim is against terrorism?” Dr Rouhani told NBC according to excerpts of the interview. “If they want to use planes and if they want to use unmanned planes so that nobody is injured from the Americans, is it really possible to fight terrorism without any hardship, without any sacrifice?

“Is it possible to reach a big goal without that? In all regional and international issues, the victorious one is the one who is ready to do sacrifice.” Dr Rouhani said while air strikes were necessary in “some conditions and some circumstances”, they should only go ahead with the “permission of the people of that country and the government of that country”.Dr Rouhani denounced IS’s beheading of innocent people, saying the militant group’s shameful actions violate Islamic principles.

“From the viewpoint of the Islamic tenets and culture, killing . . . innocent people equals the killing of the whole humanity,” he told NBC. Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad  Zarif, speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Thursday, complained about the refusal of the United States and other world powers to invite Iran to an international conference in Paris this week on the Iraq crisis.

He said the coalition Washington was building against IS was a “coalition of repenters”, because most of those that attended had originally supported IS. Dr Zarif added that later the group “came to haunt its creators”. He said that it was important to deal with the threat posed by IS, though he added that Tehran does not support foreign military intervention in the region. “We do not support foreign military involvement in the region,” Dr Zarif said. “We do not believe that injection of foreign forces solves our problem.”

Source: AFP, Reuters

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