Afghan ‘terror’ will engulf US, Petraeus: Guards commander

TEHRAN: The United States and General David Petraeus will be engulfed by “terror” in Afghanistan, a senior commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday.

“The presence of Petraeus in Afghanistan will increase terrorism and seal the expansion of American failures” in the war-ravaged country, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri was quoted as saying on the website of Guards.

“The US government has no chance of success as the igniting flames which will engulf America in Afghanistan are already visible. Terror will overwhelm America and its Nato allies” in Afghanistan, he said on Sepahnews.

Petraeus, who took over command of 140,000 US and Nato troops in Afghanistan on July 4, faces a tough task to bring peace to the nation and secure a face-saving exit for allied troops fighting an increasingly deadly insurgency by the Taliban Islamists.

Jazayeri, who also holds a senior position in Iran’s regular army, said Petraeus will fail in coordinating with Nato allies at a time when the “conflict in Afghanistan is already rising”.

Jazayeri’s remarks come a day after Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that a US-led surge of troops into Afghanistan had failed to stabilise the country and defeat the Taliban.

Washington has in the past accused Tehran of providing low-level help to some militants in Afghanistan, but former Nato commander in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, said in May that most of Tehran’s role was legitimate.

Meanwhile, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday called on Muslims to fight the “blind and savage terrorism” fuelled by the United States and Britain, whom he blamed for deadly bombings of an Iranian mosque.

“In our region ... the blind and savage terrorism is born out of the evil policies of the United States, Britain and their state and non-state mercenaries,” Khamenei said in a statement marking the seventh day of mourning for victims of the bombings of a Shiite mosque in southeastern Iran.

“All Muslims are required to combat and confront this evil and sinister offspring which is the epitome of corruption on earth and of waging war against God,” the all-powerful Khamenei said in the statement read out on state television.

Two suicide bombers on Thursday blew themselves up at a Shiite mosque in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan province which borders Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing 28 people and wounding hundreds.

Khamenei repeated the accusation, blaming US, Britain and Israeli spy agencies for the latest bombings in Zahedan despite Washington and the European Union leading a chorus of condemnation of the attacks.

“The Shiite and Sunni thinkers in all Islamic and Arab countries should define the wicked intentions of the enemies which is to instigate sectarian terrorism for all and prevent them (Muslim nations) from the great danger of religious unrest,” Khamenei said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22nd, 2010.