Iran Wants Iraq "Strong, United"
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Marziyeh Afkham announced that Tehran wants Iraq to remain a united and strong country in the region.
“We hope that the current (moves) aiming to weaken Iraq would be thwarted through preserving and strengthening the country’s national unity,” Afkham told reporters during her weekly press briefing in Tehran on Wednesday.
“We want a strong and integrated Iraq, which has great capacities in the region,” she added.
Afkham also censured those who say Iraq cannot return to its previous situation before the attacks by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group, saying that they want to see “a weak Iraq” in the region.
“The analyses are raised by the country’s enemies and ill-wishers,” she noted.
She said thanks to the presence of Iraqi army and volunteer forces as well as religious leadership the country’ current security situation is starting to get better.
In early June, following its large-scale offensives in Iraq, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) 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 Nineveh Province to flee their homes.
Following Iraqi top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s religious decree (Fatwa) which called on Iraqis to take up arms against terrorists, nearly 1.5 million Iraqis have volunteered to join battles against the al-Qaeda-linked militants. The volunteers consist of people from all walks of life including retired officers.
