US can't gloss over role in proliferating Takfiri terror by killing Daesh leader - Iran

The death of Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi at the hands of American military forces should bring to end US interventionism in the Middle East, says Iran's government spokesman, noting that Washington's policies are the main reason for the proliferation of Daesh and other Takfiri terror outfits.

Ali Rabiei wrote in an opinion piece on Sunday that Baghdadi's death, while symbolic, doesn't mean the fight against Daesh is completed, just as killing former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden didn't bring terrorism to an end.

"Baghdadi's death is the end of a symbol of injective-destructive terrorism: injecting a lethal ideology into the hearts of human societies and destroying the image of Islam in the eyes of the public," he said. 

"However, just as bin Laden' death didn't root out terror, Baghdadi's death won't be the end of Daeshism either," he added.

The main reason for this, Raebiei argued, was the fact that Washington was not going to stop undertaking policies that nurture the same kind of extremist ideologies that Baghdadi represented.

"Deaths of bin Laden and Baghdadi only ended a chapter in the fight against the Daeshi brand of terrorism," he said, adding however that the concept is still thriving "through American policies and regional petrodollars."

It is the "terror-nurturing swamps that need to be drained," Rabiei added. 

The Iranian official said the United States was doing its utmost to depict "invasion and cruel sanctions" as part of its struggle against terrorism, while in fact terrorism in the Middle East and Northern Africa is caused by "military-intelligence policies, plundering oil and supporting tyranny."

He said the alleged killing of Baghdadi as part of a planned operation doesn't take away from the "courageous efforts of the Syrian nation and its Iranian and Russian allies in liberating territories that Daesh had seized with direct and indirect support from the US."

The spokesman also said by killing Baghdadi, the US cannot hope to gloss over its role in creating bin Ladens and Baghdadis.

"We should not forget that in the eyes of the nations of the region, slaying one of the world's most dangerous terrorists won't wash off the hands of his supporters the blood of tens of thousands of people who lost their lives to Daesh or lost the right to a prosperous life because of its long-time effects," he added.

Rabiei said the fight against Daesh and its brand of terror will go on even after Syria retakes its territories from the outfit and will only end when American troops and all other foreign forces "illegally" present in the country leave.

The spokesman further said Iran, as a country that has always been on the frontline of fighting terrorism, will ensure that the people of Syria are able to determine their fate free of foreign interventionism.

Iraq, Syria, Iran defeated Daesh; US used it to cause instability

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi also reacted to al-Baghdadi's killing by echoing the government spokesman on the importance of fighting Daeshism.

"The terrorist, sectarian and extremist ideology still exists and has always been among the tools used by countries such as the United States," he said Monday.

Mousavi warned that Washington could use the remnants of Daesh to form a new terrorist outfit with similar ideology.

"We caution that this ideology is still alive and its leftovers might be reorganized by the Americans and carry out destructive operation in the region," he added.

The Iranian diplomat said he was not surprised by the media frenzy surrounding it in the US because "they always play such cards for domestic purposes whenever an election approaches."

He noted that the operation "was nothing big" because Syria, Iraq and Iran had already defeated Daesh.

"It was the youths of the resistance as well as the nations and governments of Syria and Iraq who defeated Daesh with Iran's logistical support," he asserted.

"We need to wait and see what plans the enemies will draw up for the future of the region," Mousavi added.