Iran hosts international confab against extremism, violence

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani calls on the United Nations (UN) to play a more active role in the campaign against terrorism.

President Rouhani made the remarks on Tuesday in his opening speech at an international conference on the World Against Extremism and Violence (WAVE) in the Iranian capital, Tehran with participants from more than 40 countries attending the two-day event.

Rouhani also called for boosting regional and international cooperation to build a world free of violence.

He urged those states that support Takfiri terrorist groups to renounce violence and terror.

Senior political officials, intellectuals and delegates from some Asian, African and South American countries such as Iraq, Syria and Nicaragua are attending the event.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem are in Tehran to participate in the meeting. The two countries have been hit by the ISIL militancy.

On December 18, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to approve President Rouhani’s WAVE proposal, which calls on all nations across the globe to denounce violence and extremism. The Iranian president made the proposal in his address to the UN Disarmament Conference in New York on September 25.

Tehran Conference comes against the backdrop of the growing threat of violence and extremism across the Middle East, particularly the atrocities committed by Takfiri ISIL terrorists in the Middle East.

The Takfiri militants have seized swathes of land in Iraq and Syria. They have carried out horrific acts of violence in the two countries, including public decapitations. ISIL has also killed people from Shia, Sunni, Kurd and Christian communities in Iraq.