US anti-ISIL fight political stunt: Iran’s Majlis speaker

Iran’s Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani says the US has failed to seriously battle the ISIL terrorist group, stressing that Washington’s campaign against ISIL Takfiris is a political stunt.

“The coalition formed under the US leadership to fight ISIL is a propaganda campaign,” Larijani told reporters in Islamabad on Friday after holding talks with senior Pakistani officials.

He dismissed reports about joint airstrikes by Iran and the US against the ISIL militants, saying, “Iran has carried out no airstrikes either directly or in collaboration with others [against the ISIL terrorists] because it regards this course [of action] as wrong.”

He emphasized that it would be impossible to fight against terrorism through airstrikes, adding that Tehran has no commonality with Washington in the war on terror.

The Iranian Majlis speaker said terrorist groups including the ISIL Takfiris are created to sow division in the Muslim world to serve the interests of the US and the Israeli regime.

He added that Iran strongly opposes such terrorist and extremist movements and regards them as detrimental to Muslim nations.

Since late September, the US, along with its regional allies, has been conducting airstrikes against the ISIL inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

This is while many of the countries joining the so-called anti-terror coalition, such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been staunch supporters of the ISIL Takfiri elements in the Middle East.

The airstrikes by the US and its allies are an extension of the US-led aerial campaign against the ISIL positions in Iraq, which started in August.

The ISIL terrorists currently control large swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq.