The British Broadcasting Corporation is up to its old dirty tricks again, spreading government disinformation in an attempt to make trouble for Iran.
by Finian Cunningham
(PRESS TV) – In a recent report, the BBC claimed that the Iranian leadership “has approved cooperation” with the United States in an effort to combat the extremist so-called Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria.
“Ayatollah Khamenei has sanctioned General Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force – an elite overseas unit of the Revolutionary Guards – to work with forces fighting IS, including the US,” according to the BBC, quoting “sources in Tehran.”
The BBC claim comes as US President Barack Obama this week expanded American air strikes against the terror network in western Iraq, which is also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
Iran has consistently condemned ISIL for its indiscriminate brutality towards Muslims and Christians in Syria and Iraq, whom the group targets as “infidels” in its twisted Saudi-backed Wahhabi ideology. Videos showing ISIL militants massacring captives in mass graves and beheading individuals have shocked and sickened the world. Iran views the terror group as a dangerous development in the region, which is stoking sectarian conflict and destabilizing countries.
However, the Iranian authorities have flatly rejected the BBC’s claims that the Islamic Republic is seeking to collaborate with Washington in order to defeat the ISIL.
Charman of the Expediency Council, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani this week called for a “comprehensive, global plan to destroy ISIL”. However, Rafsanjani added: “This does not mean following the policies of Westerners and the Americans.” The senior Iranian politician noted that the expansion of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and ISIL is the outcome of Washington’s pernicious covert policies, working alongside British, Saudi, Turk and Israeli military intelligence to inflame regional divisions.
Iran is well aware that American military intelligence and its CIA have been training and equipping ISIL for the past several years out of secret bases in Jordan and Turkey for the purpose of destabilizing Syria and Iraq, both of whom are close allies of Tehran. So, the notion that Iran is now collaborating with the US is outlandish.
Even Washington has rejected the BBC report. Both the US State Department and the National Security Council (NSC) said the British claim was not true. “We do not coordinate military action or share intelligence with Iran and have no plans to do so,” said NSC spokeswoman, Bernadette Meehan.
The BBC has a long and sordid history of conducting psychological warfare in Iran. The state-owned broadcaster is a tried and trusted propaganda arm of the British.
