Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani made the remarks in his address before the first Speakers’ Conference hosted by National Assembly of Pakistan.
The three-day event, running from 23-25 Dec., gathers together speakers of regional stakeholders including Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey, with a focus on Parliamentary cooperation for peace, connectivity and prosperity in the region.
Noting various factors that have lend a hand in spreading terrorism in the Middle East, Larijani referred to the occupation of Afghanistan by former Soviet Union and the presence of American and NATO troops as the reason behind the growth of terrorist activity in this country.
The use of terrorist groups by intelligence services in a bid to achieve certain objectives was another factor that spread terrorism across the region by arming and funding them, Larijani added.
According to Larijani, the spread of division and dispute among regional countries by the West aimed at controlling the oil market.
“Today, they create chaos and fabricated terror as a strategy to sell arms. Mr. Trump stole over $110 billion from regional countries during his presence at Riyadh conference and several other escapades, and later mocked all of them by announcing his decision to move US embassy to al-Quds,” Larijani said.
He went on to call on parliaments to prevent their respective governments from ‘playing with terrorism’, and stressed the need for creating an anti-terrorism mechanism to be employed by the intelligence services of the participating countries at the event.
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