A senior Iranian commander says terrorists are the tools of Western powers to secure their interests in freedom-seeking countries across the world.
“In countries where the current of affairs is against the will of Westerners and the United States, forming terror cells in those countries is a lever for realizing the goals of the West,” IRNA quoted Deputy Commander of the Chiefs of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Hejazi as saying on Tuesday.
Hejazi pointed to the assassination of former Iranian President Mohammad-Ali Rajai and former Prime Minister Hojjatoleslam Mohammad-Javad Bahonar, and described such terrorist acts as attempts to paralyze the Islamic Revolution by erasing Iranian officials and figures.
“Today, this wrong manner of thinking still exists about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear scientists,” Hejazi said.
Creating terror and anxiety among the officials and forcing them to retreat and yield to colonial powers, and also creating divisions between the people and the Islamic establishment in Iran are among the enemy’s goals in assassinations, he added, stressing that the enemy has failed to achieve any of these objectives.
The Iranian commander further condemned the West’s double standards regarding the issue of terrorism, pointing to the Western powers’ support for the Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO) terrorist group despite the fact that it is blacklisted as a terrorist entity, and the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq under the pretext of fighting terror.
“Considering that fighting terrorism was the excuse for the US invasion of Iraq, it was expected that terrorist elements, including MKO forces, would be confronted. But not only was there no confrontation, but they were also supported, and even now that the Iraqi government is determined to expel the MKO from the country, the US and Western countries are trying to hinder the move,” Hejazi added.
The MKO — listed as a terrorist organization by much of the international community — has committed numerous terrorist acts against Iranian officials and civilians as well as the people of Iraq.
After the downfall of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Iraqi government has set numerous deadlines for the terrorist group to leave the country but the MKO has managed to maintain its base with the support of the US.
