Tehran’s interim Friday prayers leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami, has said the ISIL terrorist group is America and the hegemonic powers’ new instrument of war, to wreak havoc and endanger the security of the Middle East region.

According to IRIB World Service, addressing a huge crowd of Friday prayers worshippers and the faithful in Tehran, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami referred to recent regional developments and the crimes committed by the Takfiri terrorist group, ISIL, in Iraq, stressing that the main reason for America’s and the Zionist regime’s financial and military backing of ISIL terrorists, is to project a violent image of Islam to the world.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami pointedly added: “The United States, Britain, the Zionist regime, and regressive (reactionary) regional regimes who have masterminded the current turmoil in Iraq, and who are behind the current terrorist attacks, want to break up Iraq and thus provide security for the Zionist regime.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami stressed that what is happening in Iraq today is not a war between Shiites and Sunnis. He said: “In fact ISIL terrorists don’t believe in religion, many of them were the same criminals who were once part of the Ba’athist regime of former dictator, Saddam Hussein.”

Ayatollah Khatami poignantly added: “The criminal ISIL terrorists kill both Shiites and Sunnis, and they don’t even hesitate to kill Sunni religious scholars who shun them.”

Turning to the silence of the UN security council vis-à-vis the crimes committed by ISIL terrorists in Iraq, Tehran’s interim Friday prayers Leader emphasized that the UN security council takes its cue from the United States, and that’s why it has remained silent, showing no reaction to bloodletting by ISIL terrorists in Iraq. Ayatollah Khatami pointedly added: “Their claims about fighting terrorism are simply lies.”

Turning to mobilization of Iraqi masses to fight ISIL terrorists, Ayatollah Khatami emphasized that the unity of the Iraqi people will bring them victory, and all Takfiri terrorist groups will be defeated in the end.

Tehran’s interim Friday prayers Leader also pointed to the recent elections in both Iraq and Syria, emphasizing that both the Iraqi and Syrian people emphatically rejected those individuals and groups who are close to the United States, and thus they showed in practice what they mean when they say: “Down with America”.

Ayatollah Khatami pointedly added: “The famous slogan of the Iranian nation – Down with the United States – has shattered the image and prestige of the US in the world.”

In further comments, Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Khatami said countries which are Iran’s neighbours should be careful not to fall into the trap of the United States, and not to become enmeshed in America’s adventurist policies in this region, since past experience has proven that countries which follow the US line are always worse off in the end.

In further comments, Tehran’s interim Friday prayers Leader stressed that the arrogant powers have admitted that they are hostile towards Islam (and Muslims). Ayatollah Khatami added: “Iran’s nuclear issue should also be viewed from the perspective of this hostility, the Westerners know very well that Iran is not after nuclear weapons, but they cannot tolerate a genuine Islamic government, a government based on religion at the heart of the sensitive and strategic region of the Middle East.”

MD/SS