Supreme Leader Blames West for Crisis in Iraq, Opposes Foreign Intervention

(FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei took the US and other western powers responsible for the current crisis in Iraq, and voiced opposition to any foreign intervention in the Muslim country.

"In Iraq's issue, the hegemonic western powers, specially the US, are seeking to misuse the ignorance and bias of a number of elements with no decision-making power," Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Iran's Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani and other high-ranking Judiciary officials in Tehran on Sunday.

The Leader stressed that the enemies aim to deprive the Iraqi nation of their achievements gained after the US forces' withdrawal from the country, the most important of which, he said, has been a democratic system.

"The US is displeased with the current process of election with the people's high turnout and election of people's choices because the US intends to dominate Iraq and bring to power those who obey it."

Ayatollah Khamenei referred to the US officials' remarks who are trying to display the conflict in Iraq as a sectarian war, and said, "What has happened in Iraq is not a war between the Shiites and Sunnis and the main elements behind the seditions in Iraq are hostile to the faithful Sunnis and those who believe in Iraq's independence as much as they are hostile to the Shiites."

He voiced Iran's opposition to the foreign intervention in Iraq, and said, "We believe that the Iraqi government and nation and the country's religious leadership are able to end the sedition and God willing, they will end it."

After the recent terrorist attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) many Iranian officials have blamed the western powers, specially the US, for the crisis in Iraq.

In relevant remarks on Saturday, Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi underlined that the recent crisis in Iraq was the result of terrorist groups' collaboration with Baathi ringleaders and the United States' espionage operations.

"The Americans revealed their plots after the failure (of their desired groups) in the (Iraq's parliamentary) election and they came onto the scene to make up for their failure in the election," Naqdi said in Tehran.

He said North of Iraq was surrendered to the terrorist groups after a number of Iraqi army commanders were fooled by the US and sent their units to join the ISIL.

Naqdi said luring the Iraqi commanders, some of whom have been forces of the former Baath party, was impossible without the activity and coordination of the spying agencies.

"The Americans' recent actions in Iraq have not been a guerilla campaign, rather they have been conducting espionage operations."

He said that the goal of the crisis created by the ISIL, former Bathists and the US spy agency in Iraq is sowing discord between the Iraqi Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Naqdi had earlier said that the recent attacks by the terrorist ISIL in Iraq are a new US plot to create discord among the Iraqi people.

"The scene they have created in Iraq is the result of the United States' behind-the-scene attempts to sow discord and they are certainly the main mastermind of these events," Naqdi said in the Northern city of Ramsar on Wednesday.

He said that the US and its allies attach so much importance to Iraq's oil resources that they would do anything within their capacity to protect it.

Also earlier this month, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani in a meeting with Prime Minister of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Nechirvan Barzani took the western and regional states responsible for the current crisis in Iraq.

"The current crisis in Iraq is the result of the meddling and collaboration of the western and regional enemies of the Iraqi nation, who are seeking to prevent the Iraqi people's will and determination from coming into action," Shamkhani said during the meeting in Tehran.

He called on Iraqi Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis to become united and defend their country to restore peace, tranquility and security to their country and ward off the danger of terrorism and its spread to the region.