International News

TEHRAN, (APP/AFP) – Iran’s influential
parliament speaker hit out at Washington Wednesday, accusing it
of disrupting implementation of last year’s landmark nuclear deal
and failing in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Ali Larijani, a conservative who helped the nuclear deal
pass in parliament last year, warned that Washington risked
forcing Tehran into a path of renewed confrontation by putting
obstacles in the way of its promised readmittance to the
world economy.
“With great sadness, parliament… warns the US
administration, House of Representatives and Senate that the
efforts to undermine the nuclear agreement have reached a
point that leaves no option for Iran but confrontation,” he said.
Larjiani said the West had failed to give Iran sufficient
recognition for its contribution to the fight against IS and hit
out at the United Nations for continuing sanctions against its
foreign operations commander.
Larijani said Western governments should be “thankful to
Iran and (its elite Revolutionary Guard foreign operations unit)
the Quds Force who have helped Iraq against the bestial
terrorists” of IS.
“You, who neither have the courage to confront Daesh (IS),
nor know how to fight it, as they carry out bloody attacks in
three European countries… how dare you call the admirable Quds
Force’s fight a violation?” he asked.
The Quds Force and its commander Major General Qassem
Suleimani remain under UN sanctions over its involvement in
Iran’s ballistic missile programme, which was not covered
by last year’s nuclear deal.