Continuing its propaganda battle with the US over intervention in Iraq against the Islamic State, Iran’s regime has lashed out over its exclusion from Monday’s international conference in Paris.
President Rouhani reportedly said in a Monday meeting with Slovakia’s Foreign Minister, “It is a joke that the countries which trained, equipped and financed terrorist groups now suddenly seek to fight these terrorist groups.”
Iranian State media asserts that Iraq regretted the absence of Iran from the gathering, after US Secretary of State John Kerry vetoed Tehran’s participation. It quotes Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari:
We insisted that Iran be present. However, it’s not us that took the decision. We regret the absence of Iran at this conference.
All countries are affected by the Islamic State problem and Iran is a neighboring country that has several times given us its support.
Kerry said on Monday that Iran had been blocked because of warnings from Saudi Arabia and the UAE that they would attend the conference if the Iranians were present.
While denouncing the US ban on its involvement, the Iranian regime is also insisting that Washington invited Tehran’s cooperation in the fight against the jihadists in Iraq, following their advance across the country in June. The Supreme Leader said on Monday, as he left a week-long stay in hospital, “I rejected US offer to Iran about the Islamic State because the US has corrupted its hands in this issue.”
See Iran Feature: Supreme Leader “I Rejected US Offer to Cooperate Over Iraq”
Meanwhile, the head of Iran’s armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, again linked any US-Iran rapprochement over Iraq to Washington’s withdrawal of support for the Syrian insurgency:
The experienced Syrian army forces and the country’s popular forces as well as the Iraqi army and popular forces should have the main role in this campaign.
Bombing the Islamic State’s terrorists can no way be a permission for violating the sovereignty of the Syrian and Iraqi states.
