Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is blaming the United States and Britain for inventing the militant group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as part of a campaign to divide the Muslim world.
The remarks - a reminder of Iranian suspicions about the West despite the emergence of Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria as the common enemy of Tehran and Washington - were made in the leader’s first speech since undergoing prostate surgery last month.
“America, Zionism, and especially the veteran expert of spreading divisions - the wicked government of Britain - have sharply increased their efforts of creating divisions between the Sunnis and Shiites,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. The latest accusation appeared to be in reference to Western support for rebel forces fighting Iran’s close ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Khamenei’s statements asserted his belief that the United States and Britain are using the ISIS threat to justify their renewed presence in the region. “A careful and analytic look at the developments reveals that the US and its allies, in efforts that are falsely termed countering Daesh (ISIS), seek to create division and enmity among the Muslims rather to destroy the root causes of that (terrorist) current,” he said.
The latest criticism by the Supreme Leader came just weeks after a highly hailed meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and British Prime Minister David Cameron in New York.
During that meeting - the first face-to-face meeting between the British and Iranian heads of government since the 1979 Islamic revolution - Rouhani said the two leaders had achieved a new beginning in relations. “One hour of constructive and pragmatic dialogue, new outlook,” he said after the talks at the United Nations.
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