Nasirzadeh made the remark in an address to the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security held in the town of Kubinka outside the Russian capital on Tuesday as he pointed to the repercussions of the war in Ukraine.
“We believe that were it not for the dominance and excessive demands of the West spearheaded by the United States, this ruinous war would not have happened in Ukraine,” the Iranian Army commander said.
“Those who initiated this war and those involved in fueling its flames should reconsider their approach and know that endangering the safety of others can prompt a reaction that may be difficult to predict,” he added.
Touching upon the aftermath of the ongoing conflict in the former Soviet republic, Nasirzadeh said, “What we are witnessing in Ukraine today, in which dozens of people fall victim [to the war] every day, with long-term effects and consequences for the region and the world, is a clear example of the West’s desire for domination and excessive demands to maintain and continue its hegemony, and this attempt has so far resulted in many disasters.”
Ever since the beginning of the war in February of last year, Western countries, led by the United States, have been levying sanctions against Russia while pouring tens of billions of dollars worth of advanced weapons into Ukraine – steps that Moscow says would only complicate the standing situation and prolong the hostilities.
Back in June, the Kremlin warned that any supply of long-range missiles to Kyiv by its Western backers would lead to a further round of “spiraling tension” in the ongoing conflict.
The Iranian commander lambasted the US unilateralism as a threat to the world and said the existence of global arrogance hinges on creating crises.
“Unilateralism and totalitarianism of the United States will make the world more insecure, and the US has been accustomed to the creation of crisis, war, and sanctions, [to guarantee its] political life and national security, and in a bid to achieve a unipolar order and maintain and consolidate it, the US will spare no effort to create any crisis or war,” Nasirzadeh noted.
The senior commander noted that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and its widening crackdown on its oppressed people for nearly eight decades, which was planned by the United Kingdom and supported by successive US administrations, is another example of unilateralism and “systematic oppression” against a nation.
Pointing to the importance of solidarity among nations to overcome Western unilateralism, Nasirzadeh said the Islamic Republic favors the formation of a world order based on “human dignity and justice.”
The Iranian commander praised new regional and global alliances, saying the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS group would consolidate the power and capabilities of independent countries against Western hegemony and contribute to the formation of a new world order.
During his address, Nasirzadeh also referred to the 2020 US assassination of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq and censured the United States over its so-called advocacy for human rights.
“The Americans brutally killed General Soleimani, who led the fight against Daesh — the most dangerous terrorist group in the history of mankind — and defeated them and freed the people of the region and the world from the evil of this outfit,” he noted.
SD/