Zarif to US: Targeting IRGC won’t revive Daesh, Nusra

Iran's foreign minister has taken to task the countries which first created Takfiri terror groups like Daesh to set the stage for waging wars under the pretext of fighting them, saying the blacklisting of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) by the US will not help those states revive the terror groups of their own making.

ID: 58520 | Date: 2019/04/11
Calling those countries "losers of our region's War on Terror," Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote on his official Twitter page on Thursday that it was time for them to “face the fact that you've exhausted every wrong choice and scapegoating [Iran's IRGC] won’t be your panacea.”


The phrase "War on Terror" was first used by ex-US president George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York in 2001. He called on US allies to join Washington in a military campaign, which was claimed to be aimed at responding to the terrorist act.


"Losers of our region's War on Terror cannot rescind history. Targeting #IRGC won't revive ISIS and Nusra—their clients and very creations," Zarif said, apparently referring to the US and its allies, which have on numerous occasions intervened militarily in different regional countries under the guise of fighting terrorism.


Attached to the tweet was an image of an article published by the British Independent daily in 2014, when Daesh -- which was born from the ashes of al-Qaeda -- showed face in Iraq and Syria and made sweeping territorial gains in the two neighboring states.


In that article, Independent columnist Patrick Cockburn elaborated on the role that Saudi Arabia -- a close US ally in the Middle East -- played in Daesh's lightning advances in the northern oil-rich parts of Iraq.


The regime in Riyadh is widely viewed as a supporter of Daesh and other similar Takfiri militants, who are inspired by Wahhabism, a radical ideology dominating the Saudi kingdom and freely preached by its clerics.


It was the latest in a series of tweets by the top Iranian diplomat in condemnation of a decision on April 8 by US President Donald Trump to blacklist the elite IRGC force, which offered a helping hand to the national armies of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and paved the way for them to rid their countries of Daesh terrorists in late 2017.


In marked contrast to the IRGC, the US and a group of its allies launched aerial campaigns in Iraq and Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh.


Those operations, however, did little to dislodge Daesh. The only outcome was a large number of civilians deaths and much damage to the two countries' infrastructure.


Numerous reports have emerged, over the past years, revealing Washington's support for Daesh terrorists, especially in Syria.


With the Takfiri outfit on its last legs in its former Middle East bases, the US is now said to be relocating the remaining Daesh terrorists to war-torn Afghanistan.