New Zealand FM: World Expects Iran to Help Ease Iraq Tensions
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – New Zealand foreign minister highlighted Iran’s role in the international equations, calling on Tehran to exercise influence in averting deterioration of security situation in neighboring Iraq.
“The governments and nations expect Iran to use its potentials to curb the spread of rifts (in Iraq),” New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray Stuart McCully said in a meeting with Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in Tehran on Sunday.
The Iranian official, for his part, deplored the bloody terrorist attacks by the Takfiri (extremist) groups in the Arab country, and said, “We do not want to meddle in (other) countries’ internal affairs, and hope we would be a good mediator in putting out that fire (in Iraq).”
Rafsanjani also expressed concern about the unpleasant incidents taking place across the Middle East, and said under the current circumstances, even an influential country like Iran cannot fully exploit its capacities to promote peace and regional stability.
In early June, following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group seized control of most parts of Mosul, the second most populous city in Iraq and its surrounding Nineveh province.
The terrorists’ attacks have reportedly forced more than half a million people in and around Mosul, the capital of Nineveh Province, to flee their homes.
Meantime, nearly 1.5 million Iraqis have volunteered to join battles against the al-Qaeda-linked militants shortly after senior religious and political leaders, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called on the nation to take up arms and defend their country against militants.
