The US State Department indicates again the Islamic Republic as a major player in the pro-terrorist world. Tehran responds highlighting its role in the fight against jihadist groups in Iraq, Syria. It points to its solidarity with the Palestinian people "occupied" by Israel with American consent.
Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Tehran has staunchly rejected the United States’ charges that it supports “terrorism" claiming instead that the Islamic Republic supports "the legitimate struggle of nations living in conditions of occupation".
The government's official position was expressed by the Foreign Ministry, critical of the decision of the US State Department to include the country once again on the "black list" of supporters in various capacities of terrorism and extremist movements. On the contrary, according to Iran the US itself and its allies such as Saudi Arabia, are "the real culprits".
In response to the US decision Jaberi Hossein Ansari, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, told IRNA news agency that "the legitimate struggle of nations living in conditions of occupation[...] cannot be an example of terror." In contrast, according to Tehran "the US military interference " and its "support" of "terrorist groups in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya and Yemen" with "destructive" effects are to be condemned.
The US State Department report indicates Iran as the main "nation in the world sponsor of terrorism”. The US claims that Tehran is fueling conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and is linked Shiite opposition (violent) in Bahrain.
In contrast, the Iranian government has responded by pointing to its role in favor of the Iraqi government against the Islamic State (IS). And again, its closeness to the Damascus government committed in the fight against jihadist groups and pro-Islamic rebels, some of them close to Saudi Arabia, Washington's ally in the region.
" While U.S. allies in the region in various ways support Daesh (IS) and other terrorist groups- added Jaberi Hossein Ansari - and other terrorist groups, the Islamic Republic is at the forefront in the fight against terrorism in Iraq and Syria".
And again, the link between Washington and Israel in spite of decades of occupation of Palestine makes the United States in fact "the greatest sponsor of state terrorism."
After years of embargo, Iran has obtained a partial easing of Western economic sanctions, in exchange for agreement on its controversial atomic program [for civilian use according to Tehran, to produce the bomb according to other countries including Israel]. However, the US has maintained a series of sanctions because of Tehran's ballistic missile program, as well as its [armed] support for Shiite movements in the Middle East. Among these Hezbollah in Lebanon, the government in Damascus in Syria and the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
European banks, which have branches in US territory, have been timid and have not yet fully promoted a revival of business and trade relations with Tehran for fear of cross Atlantic legal proceedings. In reality Washington has blocked the use of the dollar in bank trades, thus virtually halting any new economic contracts established after the nuclear deal. Obstacles that are favoring Iran’s internal fundamentalist faction and undermining the reform program of the moderate President Hassan Rouhani.