Cut financial aid to terrorists, Iran president tells West

“Those who claim to be fighting terrorism and those who have formed a coalition [against terrorism] should in the first step make efforts to have financial aid to terrorist groups cut,” President Rouhani said in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Tehran on Tuesday.

Noting that terrorism has grown into a major problem for all countries in the Middle East, the president warned that the US-led anti-ISIL coalition’s airstrikes against the terrorists’ positions will only benefit the Takfiri group in the long run.

The US-led coalition has conducted several airstrikes on ISIL positions across Iraq, but the air raids have so far failed to dislodge the terrorists.

The Iraqi army, backed by volunteer forces, has been fighting the terrorist group for nearly six months now.

“Iran believes that the main responsibility in the fight against terrorist groups should be shouldered by Iraqi government and popular forces. The more united the Iraqi nation…the more successful they will be,” the Iranian president pointed out.

He emphasized that Iran has been supporting the Iraqi nation and army in their fight against terrorist groups from the very first day and would proceed with this policy until the end.

Rouhani vowed that Iran would spare no effort in helping the Iraqi government and called on regional governments to counter terrorism in a “coordinated and integrated” way to uproot this phenomenon.

The Iraqi premier, for his part, said terrorism poses a threat to all regional countries, adding that Iraq is assured of Iran’s assistance for the Arab country until the eradication of terrorism.