Iran's Rouhani slams US troop veto in ISIL fight

WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse

In this Sept. 10, 2013 photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during an interview with state television at the presidency in Tehran. AP Photo

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sept. 18 criticized the United States for its refusal to send troops into combat in the battle against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants he claimed were seeking to "kill humanity."       

Speaking in an interview with NBC television in Tehran before heading to the United Nations ahead of next week's General Assembly, the Iranian leader appeared to question whether the U.S. could achieve victory over the ISIL group without putting boots on the ground.

"Are Americans afraid of giving casualties on the ground in Iraq? Are they afraid of their soldiers being killed in the fight they claim is against terrorism?" Rouhani told NBC according to excerpts of the interview.

"If they want to use planes and if they want to use unmanned planes so that nobody is injured from the Americans, is it really possible to fight terrorism without any hardship, without any sacrifice?       

"Is it possible to reach a big goal without that? In all regional and international issues, the victorious one is the one who is ready to do sacrifice."       

His Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also cast doubt on the U.S. strategy against the Islamic State group saying it was a "very dangerous phenomenon" which could not be "eradicated through aerial bombardment."      

"We need to look at the problems that have given rise to these very difficult and disturbing developments," Zarif told a U.S. think-tank, saying ISIL militants grew out of support from other countries who had created "a Frankenstein that came to haunt its creators."       

"We need new tools to deal with these new realities," Zarif told the Council on Foreign Relations, suggesting the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq had sown the seeds for the chaos now sweeping the Middle East.

The ISIL group had "an agenda to advance," Zarif said, warning all nations had to look at what "disenfranchisement has done to the people so that they are prepared to accept that type of savagery."       

'Red line'

Rouhani said while airstrikes were necessary in "some conditions and some circumstances," they should only go ahead with the "permission of the people of that country and the government of that country."       

U.S. President Barack Obama has ruled out deploying US troops on the ground against ISIL.

U.S. warplanes began airstrikes against the brutal extremist organisation's fighters in Iraq last month while building an international coalition against the group.

While critical of the United States' reluctance to send troops into battle, Rouhani said ISIL must be stopped. The group's executions of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and Briton David Haines were at odds with Islamic tenets, he said. "They want to kill humanity," Rouhani told NBC.
      

"And from the viewpoint of the Islamic tenets and culture, killing an innocent people equals the killing of the whole humanity.

"And therefore, the killing and beheading of innocent people in fact is a matter of shame for them and it's the matter of concern and sorrow for all the human and all the mankind."       

Rouhani said Iran would provide Iraq with any support necessary, but stressed a "red line" would be crossed if ISIL fighters moved on Baghdad or holy sites.