[Iran Press TV] The United States is planning to interfere in the Middle East affairs under the pretext of fighting the Takfiri...an adherent of takfir wal hijra, an offshoot of Salafism that regards everybody who doesn't agree with them as apostates who must be killed...
ISIL holy warriors operating mainly in Iraq and Syria, a former Iranian diplomat says.
"In a bid to interfere in the [Middle East] region, particularly in Iraq and Syria, the US has brought up the pretext of confronting the ISIL," former Iranian ambassador to Damascus, Hossein Sheikholeslam, said on Saturday.
He noted that the West is now facing the threat of the ISIL which it financed and trained, adding, "The ISIL Lions of Islam have repeatedly held meetings in different cities and countries like Doha, London, Jeddah, New York, Tunis and Istanbul and have been supported by the Western states."
US President Barack Obama
My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it...
announced on Friday that Washington is assembling an international coalition to "snuff out" the ISIL terrorist group. The development followed the US inaction regarding the massacres in Iraq and Syria while the rise of the ISIL Takfiri holy warriors has been directly attributed to the Western interventionist policies in the region.
Sheikholeslam further said that Iran condemns the beheading of two American journalists by the ISIL terrorists, noting, however, that ISIL holy warriors had previously carried out numerous criminal acts but the US and its allies refused to take action against them, and their current effort to fight ISIL is "shameful."