UN Official: ISIL Can Be Easily Destroyed in Short Time

UN Special Representative for Iraq Nickolay Mladenov in a meeting with Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in Tehran on Monday underlined that the ISIL terrorist group can be easily defeated in the short-run despite the allegations made to the opposite.
“Despite some claims, ISIL can be easily defeated militarily and be cleansed from people’s minds since it has no place among people and communities,” Mladenov said during the meeting in Tehran on Monday.

His remarks came after US President Barack Obama underlined in the first days of fight against the ISIL that the Washington-led anti-ISIL coalition can defeat the terrorist group soon but later changed his idea and said such a campaign may take years.

Also during the meeting, Rafsanjani underlined the failure of the so-called anti-ISIL coalition and the dire situation of the people in the Syrian city of Kobani, and said, “The public opinion cannot accept that a coalition of 40 European and Arab states’ armies has been unable to fight a small terrorist group in a city after two months.”

He also referred to the conditions in Afghanistan 13 years after the US invasion of the country, and said cultivation and production of illicit drugs has grown 8 fold despite the deployment of the US and NATO troops.

Rafsanjani also reminded the UN of its responsibility for fighting terrorism seriously, stressing that this is an “intrinsic duty” of the world body.

In relevant remarks in November, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian lashed out at the western countries for supporting the Takfiri terrorists in Syria and Iraq, and said that US-led anti-ISIL coalition aimed to secure the West’s interests in the region.

“The Western countries, including the US, seek their own interests in the so-called campaign against ISIL terrorists,” Amir Abdollahian said.

He reiterated that Iran on different occasions warned the US and western countries about the ISIL threats and the growing presence of terrorists in the sensitive Middle East region.

“These terrorist groups will continue their operations unless the US and the West adopt a clear approach to fight terrorism,” Amir Abdollahian said.