US root cause of all problems in Middle East: Iran

Chief spokesman for Iran's Armed Forces says the United States is the most important reason behind all the current problems in the Middle East, stressing that Washington must accept its strategic mistakes and leave the region.

“The root cause of all the problems in the West Asia region is the US hegemony,” Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on Sunday.

He added that bloody wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen, the continuation of the Israeli regime’s occupation of Palestine, the Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s, the Lebanese and Bahraini conflicts and other events that have killed and wounded thousands of people and left behind destruction are only some consequences of measures taken by the evil US government in the region.

“The US presence in the region is [like] a malignant cancerous tumor and the only way to treat it is to remove this infected tumor and kick the US out of the region,” Jazayeri added.

He urged the US to own up to its strategic mistakes and shoulder responsibility for the thousands of criminal acts it has committed and leave the region to relieve the regional nations of the malevolence of the Great Satan.

Jazayeri made the remarks in reaction to recent claims by the US Secretary of State John Kerry, who had questioned the Islamic Republic’s policies in the region, particularly in Syria and Yemen, and said Iran is “firing missiles that people deem to be threatening.”

In an interview with the American magazine Foreign Affairs published on Friday, Kerry claimed that Washington has carried out all of its obligations under last year’s nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, and sought to blame Iran’s “banking system, business practices, and transparency” for the complications arising in the implementation of the deal.

While major European banks have been reluctant to do business with Iran for fear of US retribution, smaller banks have already approached the country in search of post-sanctions business opportunities.

In May, the US secretary of state told a meeting of top EU bankers that they will not be penalized for conducting or facilitating business with Iran. However, major European banks have already emphasized that Kerry’s assurances are not enough and a series of confusions that remain over transactions with Iran need to be cleared by Washington.

Iran has been persistently urging European countries to take the required measures to encourage their banks to facilitate transactions with Tehran now that the sanctions have been removed.

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