Iran SNSC Secretary Urges Shiite -Sunni Unity to Defend Iraq
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said the Sunnis and Shiite Muslims in Iraq should unify in order to restore peace and stability in the country and to repel the danger of terrorism in the region.
“The expansion of terrorism has been supported by those countries that claim to advocate peace and security throughout the world,” said Shamkhani in his meeting with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government Nechirvan Barzani.
Shamkhani, who is on an official trip to Arbil, emphasized Iran’s determination to prevent the infiltration and expansion of terrorism in the region. He blamed the intervention of the “regional and Western enemies” of the Iraqi nation for the current security crisis in the country.
Barzani for his part stressed his government’s intention to combat Takfiri (extremist) terrorists. He pledged that the Kurdistan Regional Government would use all of its capacities to safeguard the sovereignty of Iraq against the “anti-human terrorists.”
During the meeting, the Kurdistan Regional Government premier also presented a report on the latest military, political, and security developments in Iraq.
In early June, following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized control of most parts of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq, its surrounding Nineveh province. ISIL militants have been in control of Fallujah city since December.
The terrorists’ attacks have reportedly forced more than half a million people in and around Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, to flee their homes.
The Takfiri militants have vowed to march toward the capital, Baghdad.
They are said to have entered Iraq from neighboring Syria and Saudi Arabia to destabilize the Arab country.
