Cuban Envoy: US Not Qualified to Spearhead Campaign against Terrorism

Cuban Ambassador to Tehran Vladimir Andres Gonzalez Quesada blasted Washington for its double-standard policies vis a vis different terrorist groups, and said the US cannot play a pioneering role in war on terrorism , AVA Diplomatic reports.“The US cannot take the leadership of the fight against terrorism,” Quesada said on Tuesday.

“If the US wants to spearhead the campaign against terrorism, it should clear its past, recognize all countries’ independence, destroy its weapons (of mass destruction) and respect human rights across the world,” he added.

Quesada reminded the United States’ dual-track policy of assisting and fighting terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and said this is only one of the many instances of Washington’s double-standard policies on terrorism, which shows Washington’s true nature and disqualifies it from having a leading role.

“On one hand, the US is the leader of campaign against the ISIL, and on the other hand, terrorist elements are present in that country (the US) and Washington detains those people who are running anti-terrorism activities,” he added.

In relevant remarks last month, Chairman of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi in a meeting with Czech Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Tlapa blasted the US double-standard approach to terrorism, and took Washington’s policies responsible for the spread of terrorism in the region.

“The policies of the US and its regional allies are the root cause of the reinvigoration and spread of terrorism in the region and any continuation of the view that there is good and bad terrorism would not help root out terrorism at all,” Boroujerdi said during the meeting in Tehran mid September.

Also in June, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani blasted the world powers for using terrorism as a tool to advance their propaganda goals, and took the US and certain regional states responsible for the crises in Iraq and Syria due to their support for Takfiri and Baathi groups.

“The Baathists and Takfiris should be blamed for the recent events in Iraq. When the events happened in Syria, many countries around Iran came to us and spoke about Syria and said if Syria shows respect for democracy, the Takfiris won’t be there anymore; now I ask if there were no democracy in Iraq that we now see the Takfiris taking the current actions,” Larijani said, addressing a forum in Tehran.

“It is obvious that the Americans and the countries which are around us have made such moves and while they don’t even have a proper parliament, they are thinking about democracy in Iraq and Syria,” he added.

Larijani underlined that these events displayed how terrorism had grown into an instrument for the big powers to advance their goals under this pretext.