"US prolonging Mosul operations to continue security crisis in West Asia"

Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani warned that the US is troubling Iraq's Mosul liberation operation in a bid to prolong the security problems in West Asia.

"The US attempts to trouble the Mosul liberation operation and prolong its trend are the result of its lack of will to end the security crisis in West Asia," Shamkhani said in a meeting with Iraqi First Vice-President Nuri al-Maliki in Tehran on Tuesday.

Noting that the terrorist group of ISIL's collapse started in Iraq after the army kicked off operations to free Mosul, he said, "Certainly, the operations will continue to the end with the Iraqi army and popular forces' determination and the Takfiri terrorists will find no more chance to recruit and hatch new plots."

Shamkhani also stressed that the Hashd al-Shaabi (Iraqi popular forces) is a strategic potential to establish security in Iraq in the future.

Maliki, for his part, appreciated Iran for its supports for his country in the war on terrorism.