Iran Terms US Military Buildup Danger to Regional Democracies

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani in a meeting with Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammad al-Halbousi warned that the US military troops deployment endangers democratic states in the region.

News ID: 443798

Date: 07 March 2019 - 17:32

RNA - "Deployment of American forces in the region is a long-term threat to the governments which are democratic, rely on their internal power and oppose dependence on (foreign) powers," Shamkhani said during the meeting in Tehran on Wednesday.

He added that the high-cost experience of ISIL attack against Iraq showed that the US does not defend people and governments against terrorists and rather uses all its arms and intelligence capacities to make an instrumental use of them.

Halbousi, for his part, appreciated Iran's role in the establishment of security and stability in the region, saying that defeating the Takfiri terrorists was not possible without Tehran's assistance.

He also denounced the US unilateral sanctions against Iran, saying, "We will not allow any country to use Iraq's territory to carry out hostile action against another country."

In relevant remarks earlier today, Al-Halbousi condemned the unilateral sanctions against the Iranian nation, stressing that Baghdad would not allow third parties to use Iraq's soil to attack Iran.

"In this meeting, we condemned sanctions against the world nations, specially the unilateral sanctions against the Iranian nation and declared that these attitudes are against international norms," Halbousi told reporters after meeting his Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani in Tehran on Wednesday.

"We also underlined that Iraq will not allow its territories to be used for any type of attacks against its neighboring countries," he added.

According to Fars News Agancy, Halbousi noted that the necessity for the establishment of stability and reconstruction of Iraq was also emphasized during the meeting, adding that defeating the ISIL terrorist group in his country was not possible without the assistance of Iraq's friends, specially Iran.

His comments came after Iraqi President Barham Salih underlined that relations with Iran underlie his country's ties with the region.

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