US Using ISIL in Proxy War to Divide Muslims

(FNA)- Iran's Ground Force Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan blamed the US for supporting the terrorist groups in the region, and said Washington is using the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to sow discord among the Muslims.

"Proxy wars are the most important threat in the region and the world today as the world arrogance headed by the US spares no efforts to create rift among the Shiite and Sunni Muslims by equipping the terrorist and Takfiri groups like the ISIL, al-Nusrah and Jund al-Shaitan (Jundollah terrorist group)," Pourdastan said, addressing elite units of the Ground Forces in the Northeastern city of Mashhad on Sunday.

Elsewhere, he pointed to the 9/11 attacks in the US, and said the most important goal pursued through this incident was deploying troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to attack Iran, but they failed due to the wise leadership of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and the might and power of the Iranian Armed Forces.

In relevant remarks in August, Pourdastan blasted the crimes committed by the ISIL in different regional countries, and said they were the US proxy force fighting to wear off Iran's influence in the region.

"Today, the enemy is seeking to overthrow the Islamic Revolution through different threats, soft wars, economic sanctions and proxy wars," he said.

Noting that the US had waged a proxy war in the region, he said, "By killing people, the ISIL forces in the Arab states and al-Nusra Front in Syria are fighting for the US in a proxy war."

Many Iranian officials and military commanders have blamed the US and its regional allies for the recent insecurities in the countries neighboring Iran, specially in Iraq.

Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy General Alireza Tangsiri warned in June that the US and other enemies of Iran who had failed in their plots against the country were trying to disturb security in the region to push back the Islamic Revolution.

"Today, our enemies led by the US have resorted to seeking excuses, fabricating deceitful and unreal images and undermining security to confront the influence of the Islamic Revolution," Tangsiri said in Tehran.

He underlined the necessity for maintaining unity and increasing knowledge and wisdom against enemies' plots which he said emerges in a new shape and form each day.

Also in June, Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) Force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi condemned the crimes committed by the terrorist Takfiri and Salafi groups in the region, and said these crimes were supported by the western states and certain oil-rich Arab countries.

"These (Takfiri) streams that introduce Shiites as infidels, issue decree for their killing, commit crimes and massacre innocent people under the pretext of (obeying) Islam and differences (between Shiite and Sunni Islam) in their fatwas (religious decrees) say nothing but lies," Naqdi said in the Southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan.

He said that the Takfiri groups committed crimes in line with the ominous goals of the arrogant powers and obey the western and Israeli think tanks as they were supported by certain regional Arab countries' petrodollars.