Iran Calls Obama’s Remarks on US intention to Destroy ISIL "A Joke"


Iran Calls Obama’s Remarks on US intention to Destroy ISIL "A Joke"

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani dismissed President Barack Obama’s comments about the US intention to destroy the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as funny.

“We consider Obama’s remarks about destroying ISIL as a joke,” Larijani, who is in Geneva, Switzerland to attend the 131st Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly,  said in a meeting with his Algerian counterpart, adding that Washington is not capable of doing it.

It is the US and its allies that are behind the presence of terrorist groups in the region, he reiterated.

In a White House speech on September 11, Obama said he would hunt down ISIL militants “wherever they are” in a drive to degrade and ultimately destroy the group, which has seized broad stretches of Iraq and Syria.

“That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria, as well as Iraq. This is a core principle of my presidency: if you threaten America, you will find no safe haven,” he said, speaking on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Since late September, the US and several of its Arab allies including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL inside Syria.

The US began airstrikes on ISIL targets in Iraq in mid-August. Several Western nations, including Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Britain, France and Australia have joined the US military campaign in Iraq.

But the airstrikes have so far proven ineffective and, some say, the situation has gotten even worse since the attacks by the US and its allies began.

 

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