TEHRAN - Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani told the visiting Azeri Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov on Sunday that the U.S. can never boost its national security by bombarding other countries.

The remarks by Shamkhani came after the U.S. on Thursday dropped its most powerful non-nuclear bomb, known as the “mother of all bombs”, on Daesh positions in Afghanistan. The U.S. also fired 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian airbase on April 7 under the pretext that the airfield was used to drop chemical weapons on a city in Syria’s Idlib province.

Shamkhani also called the bombardment of Afghanistan by the U.S. “illegitimate”.

Unilateral actions of the U.S. and some of its allies that undermine regional security will prevent success of political solutions to crises in the region, noted Shamkhani, a former defense chief.

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai on Saturday accused his successor of committing “treason” by allowing the U.S. military to drop the largest conventional bomb ever used in Afghanistan. 

Terrorism stymying progress
 
Shamkhani also said, “Danger of terrorism and its roots, especially the Takfiri ideology which are being promoted by some regional countries, have made the whole region face crisis and will prevent the Islamic countries to progress.”

Iran warns regional countries of spreading instability

In a separate meeting with the Azeri defense chief on Sunday, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan said instability and insecurity in the region will be spread if no “responsible policy” is taken to counter them.

Dehqan said Daesh, al-Nusra Front, and other Takfiri-Wahhabi affiliated groups as well as aggressive policies by the U.S., the Zionist regime of Israel and Saudi Arabia have all influenced the world negatively.

For his part, Hasanov called for expansion of defense and military cooperation with Iran.

NA/PA