US Using ISIL to Legitimize Long-Term Presence in Middle East

(FNA)- Secretary of Iran's National Security Council Ali Shamkhani underlined that the ISIL is a US protégé, serving Washington's long-term interests in the region.

"The US is not seeking destruction of the ISIL, but it is using the terrorist group as a publicity tool to legitimize its long-term presence in the Middle East and the Muslim states," Shamkhani said in a meeting with Head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) Ammar al-Hakim in Tehran on Tuesday.

Shamkhani described the ISIL as a political intrigue meant to sow the seed of discord and serve the Zionist regime's interests on religious pretexts.

"The alliance of the terrorists with Ba'athists and conducting anti-Islam measures shows that despite the false propaganda launched in this ground, the nature of terrorism in Iraq is not religious, rather it is moving within the framework specified by the arrogant powers to take Iraq out of the axis of resistance," he added.

The top Iranian security official called on the Iraqi army, government and popular forces to utilize all their potentials and capacities to uproot the ISIL.

"The US scandal of training and equipping the new terrorist groups who have been sent to Syria to fight the extremists is a clear indication of (Washington's) instrumental use of terrorism," Shamkhani added.

In relevant remarks in November, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei described the ISIL terrorist group as just a branch of the Takfiri stream which has troubled the region, and said ISIL is serving the US and Israel’s interests.

Addressing the political and religious figures participating in the ‘International Congress on Takfiri Streams in the Eyes of the Islamic Ulema’ in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei described the Takfiri stream as a problem imposed by the arrogant powers on the region in line with the US and Israel’s interests, and said the Takfiri stream should be considered as a phenomenon beyond the ISIL as the terrorist group is only a branch of the Takfiri stream.

“The Takfiri stream and the governments which support it completely move in line with the goals of the arrogant powers, meaning the US, the hegemonic European governments and the Zionist regime, and are practically at their service under an Islamic disguise,” he added.