Iran’s President Rouhani blames western powers for West Asian crisis

NEW YORK- Amid the ongoing campaign of air-strikes, led by the United States, against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani blamed the West for the current crisis in region.

“Certain states have helped create [extremism] and are now failing to withstand it,” said Rouhani in New York on September 25.

Further he commented, “Today’s anti-Westernism is the offspring of yesterday’s colonialism. Today’s anti-Westernism is a reaction to yesterday’s racism.”

Alluding to the West’s campaign of arming rebels against the Syrian regime of President Basar al Assad, Rouhani said that certain intelligence agencies have “put the blades in the hands of madmen, who now spare none.”

Contending that ‘military aggression’ in Iraq and Afghanistan and ‘improper interference’ in Syria was an ‘erroneous strategic approach in the Middle East’, Rouhani reiterated his stance that the current air-strikes in Syria were illegal.

Prior to this statement, Rouhani’s had parleys with Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron. This was the first time leaders of Iran and Britain have talked since Iran’s revolution in 1979.

After the meeting Cameron said that while the two countries ‘have severe disagreements’, Iran could help to defeat Islamic State (IS) militants.

Certain experts have argued that the ongoing crisis in the West Asia would be a historic opportunity for Iran and the US to come together and cooperate in the tackling the scourge of the Islamic State.

However, the US President Barack Obama has refused to ‘officially’ work with Iran and the Assad-led government in Syria.

Yet, it has been reported that the two sides have been coordinating efforts via the mutually trusted Iraqi government.

In his speech, Rouhani also said, “I am coming from a region of the world whose many parts are currently burning in the fire of extremism and radicalism.”

On this aspect, he added, “To the east and west of my country, extremists threaten our neighbours, resort to violence, and shed blood. They, of course, do not speak a single language, they are not of a single skin colour, and not of a single nationality; they have come to the Middle East from around the world. They do, however, have a single ideology: violence and extremism.”

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