TEHRAN, Iran
No Iranian soldier will be deployed to the war-torn Iraq, Iran’s chief of staff said Wednesday.
"There is no need for the presence of Iranian soldiers in Iraq, as Iraqi people are capable of solving their own problems," Maj-Gen Hassan Firouzabadi said according to Iran’s state news agency IRNA.
Firouzabadi also ruled out any cooperation between Iran and the U.S., calling it "meaningless."
A possible U.S.-Iran cooperation has made the headlines since Monday when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that they were open to cooperation with Tehran against the growing tide of Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
Unrest is running high in Iraq as Sunni militants led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL have launched attacks Wednesday on Iraq's biggest oil refinery after taking control of some key cities and towns including Mosul, Tikrit and Tal Afar, threatening to move south towards capital Baghdad.
Firouzabadi claimed that ISIL was a brainchild of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"ISIL is a joint project launched by the U.S. and Israel to create safe frontiers for Zionists in the face of anti-Israeli resistance groups," he said.
Iraq has seen a marked increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims in recent months, which the Iraqi government blames on ISIL.
aa.com.tr/en
