Iranian army chief: Zionists, West created Islamic State
Chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces US, Israel and Britain created and supported Islamic State.
By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON
Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, said the US, Israel and Britain created and supported Islamic State so that it would wage war against Muslim states.“The phenomenon of ISIL is a terroristic move that has been created against our neighbors in Iraq, Syria and other Muslim countries by Zionism, Britain and the US,” Firouzabadi told reporters on Monday, the Iranian Fars News Agency reported.He claimed that these states used the terrorist group in order to achieve their own goals.Iranian officials have made such claims in the past. Last week, Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri spoke of the threat that Islamic State poses to the region and said the group was serving Israel’s long-term interests, Fars reported.Separately, Nayef Hawatmeh, head of the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, said in a meeting on Tuesday with Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Ferdowsipour that Iran was playing an important role in the victory of the “resistance” against the “Zionists,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.During that meeting, Ferdowsipour said Iran would stand by the Palestinian nation and “resistance movement” until the “occupation ends.”Meanwhile, a nuclear-themed domino show held in the Iranian city of Gonabad climaxed with a “missile” destroying an Israeli flag, according to a report by MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute.The video, posted on the Internet last week, shows falling dominoes representing obstacles to Iran’s nuclear program, such as the assassination of scientists, negotiations and sanctions, the dominoes being replaced with posters stating the country’s nuclear achievements.