Iran’s ambassador to the UN has called on the US government to declassify its intelligence on the alleged “Iranian threat” in Iraq saying he is confident that the claim is “fake”.
“If they have credible evidence and information, why don’t they declassify them and make it known to the American people and to the people of the world?” the Iranian Ambassador Majid Takht-Ravanchi said in a Thursday interview with CBS News
He added “As long as they cannot share this so-called intelligence, which we call fake intelligence, there is no utility in saying that these information are credible”
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Press TV reports: The ambassador said reports that “Iranian proxies” are posing a threat to the US forces in the Middle East “are part of the same propaganda tools that Americans are employing.”
“These are the same fake intelligence that is being used to provoke,” he added.
The Iranian ambassador also said he believes President Trump does not want a war, “but that does not mean that people who are close to him share his opinion.”
“I do not want to involve myself in the American politics, but the fact of the matter is that those hardliners in the administration have been trying to provoke, to agitate, to create the necessary grounds for a war, for a conflict with Iran,” he said.
A few hours before the interview, President Trump told reporters he hoped the two countries don’t go to war.
Takht-e Ravanchi said, “So as far as the president is concerned, the thing that he said today, is not something new for us, because that was our belief; as Iran is not interested in a war.”
“The war is not an option for Iran. I think it will be detrimental to the security of the whole region if God forbid we will have a conflict in our neighborhood … That would be disaster,” the Iranian envoy said.
The Iranian diplomat, however, warned about the use of fake intelligence, similar to those which resulted in the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, to push Washington toward a war with Tehran.
He referred to the “fake intelligence which says Iran is culprit for the problems in the region”, describing it as the “root cause of all these events” which should be tackled and taken care of.
Pointing to Trump’s hawkish national security advisor, John Bolton, and his role in the Iraqi invasion, Takht-e Ravanchi said, “Those who were responsible for the Iraqi invasion back in 2003 are the same people who are trying to create a conflict in our region.”
“Nobody knows what’s going to happen as long as there are armada in our region, there are fleets in our region, there are bombers in our region, and the question that should be asked is why these armada are in the region?”
