Qassemi made the remarks in reaction to the claims made by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the sidelines of CERA Energy Week’s Conference in Texas on Iran-Iraq relations as well as the hackneyed and worthless allegations he made about Iran in a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
“Relations between Iran and Iraq have been established with the [strong] will of two sides’ leaders and at the request of Iranian and Iraqi nations and are totally based on mutual respect and trust and common interests,” Qassemi said.
“Unlike the US’ usual meddlesome policies, neither Iran nor Iraq has sought to impose its own will and demands on the other side,” he said in a statement on Thursday.
The spokesman said Iran and Iraq have been neighbours for hundreds of years and will remain so for the next hundreds of years.
“The two sides’ leaders have decided to stand behind each other in hard times,” Qassemi said.
If such a decision and choice annoys American officials, he noted, that does not give them any right to use undiplomatic phrases and gross words when talking about Iran-Iraq ties as two independent states.
American officials make such comments out of their selfish habits and outrage, Qassemi said, adding, however, that Washington’s irritation with Tehran-Baghdad ties is “meaningless”.
The spokesman also referred to Pompeo’s worn-out and invalid remarks in his meeting with the UN secretary general, and said some American officials, influenced by the Zionist lobby groups in the US, have been using whatever in their power to bear animosity against Iran and launch anti-Iran propaganda.
“Instead of launching efforts to stop war in the Middle East, eradicate Takfiri terrorism within the borders of certain US allies, and adopt the policy of contributing to peace and stability in West Asia, the American officials make fabricated and unreal claims and accusations in a bid to preserve the status quo of West Asia and keep it a tense environment struggling with numerous and complicated and seemingly unresolvable crises,” he said.
According to Qassemi, the US has been increasing its arms sales to the region to further raise its revenues at the cost of the deaths of thousands of innocent people, destruction of infrastructure of certain regional states and fanning the flames of long-time and grueling crises among the regional states.
