MESOP: THE AGGRESSOR SPEAKS ABOUT PEACE / Iranian Official Claims of US Plot to Divide Iraq / Mahsen Rezaei says Syria and Yemen are also in danger of breaking up
Basnews | Luke Coleman – TEHRAN – 4 May 2015 – The Iranian semi-official Tasnim news agency, reports that the secretary of Iran’s expediency council has warned that the US is engineering to break Iraq into three countries.
“They (the Americans) want Iraq to be divided into three countries, Syria into two countries and Yemen into northern and southern states,” Mahsen Rezaei told a Tehran press conference on Sunday. The comments appear to stem from a 2007 statement by US Vice President Joe Biden, in which he put forward a three state solution for Iraq. Biden has since distanced himself from the plan. “The US seeks to break up Iraq directly, without the help of Turkey and Saudi Arabia, but has left Yemen to the Saudis,” said Rezaei. Areas of Iraq have been under the control of Islamic State militants since the beginning of 2014. They have risen to prominence in Syria since the civil war started in 2011. Clashes in Yemen have seen the regional powers of Saudi Arabia and Iran back the Sunni government and Houthi Shi’ite rebels respectively.