Sri Lankan attacks example of ISIS spreading from Iraq, Syria into Afghanistan: Iran FM Zarif

The Islamic State (ISIS) has been “airlifted” from Iraq and Syria into Afghanistan and one example of it is the barbaric attack in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in New York. Speaking at the Asia Society on Wednesday, he said that the attacks in Sri Lanka has vindicated what they have been saying.

Unfortunately, we have been saying that and people believe that we were just trying to make propaganda and a conspiracy theory approach. ISIS has been airlifted from Iraq and Syria into Afghanistan,” he said.

“You see one example of it unfortunately in the barbaric attack on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka,? Zarif said responding to a question on the status of ISIS and the connection with the terror attacks in the island nation.

The Sri Lankan authorities say that National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) was behind the attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels. But ISIS have claimed responsibility for the attacks and named the suicide bombers involved.

“But unfortunately, the people of Afghanistan are seeing incident after incident, terrorist attack after terrorist attack by ISIS, directed against particular sects in Afghanistan in order to create the sectarian war that ISIS has been looking for since 2002,” he said.

Zarif criticised the “wrong policies” of the US in war-torn Afghanistan, saying talking to the Taliban about Afghanistan’s future but excluding the Afghan government from it has achieved nothing.

“Seriously wrong policies by the United States, wrong approaches, an attempt to exclude everybody and just talk to the Taliban has alienated the government, the region and it achieved nothing,” he said.

“You cannot negotiate the future of Afghanistan with the Taliban. The Taliban represents only a segment of the Afghan society, not all of it. You cannot exclude the government, you cannot exclude the other groups in Afghanistan and just talk to the Taliban,” he said.