Massive bombs will fail to guarantee US security: Iran official

A senior Iranian official has slammed as illegitimate the recent bid by Washington to drop a massive non-nuclear bomb on Afghanistan, stressing that such bids would fail to make the US secure.

“Bombing people and countries [by the US] will never enhance this country’s national security,” Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said in a meeting with Azerbaijan’s Defense Minister Lieutenant General Zakir Hasanov in Tehran on Sunday, Press TV reported.

He added that unilateral measures by the US and some of its allies and their efforts to undermine regional security are strengthening terrorist groups in the region and would render futile political approaches to solve crises.

The SNSC secretary warned that the threat of terrorism and its root causes, including Takfiri ideology which is promoted by some regional countries, have led to the creation of crises across the Middle East and are hindering the progress of Muslim states.

“Several cases of the use of chemical weapons by terrorist groups have been recorded and lack of appropriate response to them or playing a blame game and misleading [people] will result in a human catastrophe and their (chemical arms) use in other countries,” Shamkhani said.

The SNSC secretary made the comments a few days after the United States bombed Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar Province with a non-nuclear weapon, nicknamed the ‘mother of all bombs.’

Elsewhere, Shamkhani said that Tehran and Baku have numerous commonalities in defensive, political, regional, cultural and religious sectors and stressed the importance of improving relations in strategic issues.

The Azeri defense minister, for his part, said the two countries are faced with common threats such as Takfiri and terrorist groups.

Hasanov added that Iran has valuable experience in counter-terrorism measures and expressed his country’s readiness to hold close talks with Tehran in this regard.

SS