Ayatollah: European Nationality of Terrorists in Recent Attacks Shows West Isn’t Serious About Fighting Terrorism
(CNSNews.com) – Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the fact that perpetrators of recent terrorist attacks in Europe were European nationals proves that the West, especially the United States, is not serious about fighting against terrorism, according to a report on his official website.
The report [1] said that Khamenei, during a meeting on Monday night with the visiting president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, drew attention both to the European nationality of terrorists involved in the attacks in Europe and the fact many European nationals have joined terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria.
“The Leader of the Islamic Revolution highlighted the European nationality of the perpetrators of terrorist incidents in Europe and the massive presence of people from these countries in the ranks of terrorist groups operating in Syria and Iraq, adding: ‘These realities prove the lack of seriousness on the part of the West, particularly Americans, in the fight on terrorism,’ ” the report stated.
“Certain powers, particularly America, are not honest and serious in their alleged fight against terrorism, but Muslim countries can save the Muslim world from this threat through honest cooperation,” it quoted him as saying.
Iran’s Mehr news agency, in a report [2] on Khamenei’s meeting with Nazarbayev, quoted him as saying, “the fact that all terrorists engaged in acts of terrorism within the past months had European nationalities belie their purported attempts to fight terrorism.”
The identified perpetrators of and suspects in the terrorist attacks in Paris last November and in Brussels last month are Muslim nationals of European countries, all of them of Arab descent.
They include Belgian and French nationals, of mostly Moroccan but also Algerian descent. A group of suspects apprehended in Brussels on Friday included a Swedish national of Syrian heritage [3].
The report on Khamenei’s website said the ayatollah also accused Western countries of differentiating between “good” and “bad” categories of terrorists, repeating his frequent charge that the U.S. supports Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists.
“Today, Muslim countries are on the one hand facing the threat of terrorist groups that are acting in the name of Islam and, in fact, against Islam and Muslims, while on the other hand, certain Western powers are not willing to see Muslim countries united and standing by one another,” he said.
Confronted by Western “double standards,” Islamic countries must enhance their cooperation, Khamenei was quoted as telling Nazarbayev.
Kazakhstan’s president was also quoted as blaming Western policies in the region for the spread of terrorism.
“Terrorism and the flood of migration of refugees, in fact, stem from the Western governments’ actions against legal governments in regional countries, because when a stable central government is unseated in a country, terrorism will take its place,” Nazarbayev said.
He expressed support for Khamenei’s appeal for Muslim unity.
“We must show to the entire world that Islam is the religion of progress, unity and fight against terrorism,” he said.
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