Former Iranian diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian on Iran’s growing influence

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Former Iranian diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian on Iran’s growing influence

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former top diplomat of Iran says, “The U.S. had the wrong assessment about the status of the Iraqi army before departing Iraq. The U.S. spent billions of dollars to create a new army, but it failed as we see today, this is the failure of U.S. policy.” CCTV’s Asieh Namdar reports.

“We need a collective cooperation between regional powers and international powers to fight this type of terror, which to my understanding the most dangerous version of terrorism in the history of mankind.” Says former Iranian diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian speaking on the dangerous and fast-moving advance of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, who’ve seized large sections of northern and western Iraq in the past three weeks. The militants have threatened to march on to Baghdad.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government has managed to stop the militants short of the capital but has not been able to take back cities like Mosul, overrun by militants June 10th and abandoned by thousands of Iraqi forces. Mousavian says U.S. is partly to blame.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former top diplomat of Iran says, “The U.S. had the wrong assessment about the status of the Iraqi army before departing Iraq. The U.S. spent billions of dollars to create a new army, but it failed as we see today, this is the
failure of U.S. policy.”

Former Iranian diplomat Seyed Hossein Mousavian on Iran’s growing influence-

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former top diplomat of Iran says, "The U.S. had the wrong assessment about the status of the Iraqi army before departing Iraq. The U.S. spent billions of dollars to create a new army, but it failed as we see today, this is the failure of U.S. policy.” CCTV's Asieh Namdar reports.

Iraqi officials say Syrian warplanes struck several border areas in Anbar province last week and there are reports Iran has sent special forces and a unit of elite troops to Iraq. Mousavian would not confirm that but says Iran is ready to help if Iraq asks for military help.

The Obama Administration has deployed military advisors and there have been talk of U.S. and Iranian cooperation to diffuse the crisis. Mouavian says Iran and U.S. have worked together before, and need to do it again. Seyed Hossein Mousavian: “you remember in 2001 after the deadly September 11th attacks, the U.S. officially announced the war on terror and invited Iran to cooperate. At that time, Iranians and Americans were working together in Afghanistan Iranian and American generals working shoulder to shoulder inside Afghanistan.

That’s a good example of cooperation between the two countries what they have done, and what they should do in Iraq and Syria.” Mousavian also touched on the delicate nuclear negotiations between Iran and the world powers and whether the parties can reach a deal. He was spokesman for Iran in its nuclear negotiations with the European Union in 2003-2005.

Mousavian on where things stand at this point: I agree, it’s constructive because Iran is ready to cooperate and accept every commitment world powers are demanding under NPT. The problem is what Wendy Sherman was referring to as “tough” is about world powers demanding what’s beyond NPT, and that’s the bottleneck of negotiations.

As far as whether Iran has or is working on building a nuclear bomb Mousavian has said no.
He said when former Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein attacked Iran with chemical weapons after its invasion Iran’s defense minister was in a position to retaliate, but didn’t because then religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini ruled it out saying any such attack is “haram” or forbidden. In Mousavian’s own words “what better evidence do you want “.