Iran’s top security official said that the US is encouraging ISIS by dropping bombs on paramilitary fighters along the Iraqi border.
“America’s recent action strengthens and expands the activities of the terrorist Daesh (Islamic State) in the region,” said Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, during a visit with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
The airstrikes late Thursday, the first under President Biden, targeted sites on the Syrian side of the Iraqi-Syrian border, where Iran-backed groups control an important crossing for weapons, personnel and goods. The administration said they were intended to deter future attacks on US troops in Iraq.
“The attack on anti-terrorist resistance forces is the beginning of a new round of organized terrorism,” Hussein said, Reuters reported.
Shamkhani said, “we will confront the US plan to revive terrorism in the region,” but did not elaborate.
Shamkhani also pressed Hussein for Iran to tell the US to withdraw the rest of its troops in the country, according to reports.