Tehran: US Defense Secretary Ash Carter accused Iraqi forces of lacking the “will to fight” in an interview on Sunday. US officials, including Carter, have said Iraqi forces fled the Daesh advance on Ramadi without fighting back, leaving behind weapons and vehicles for the extremists.
So far, the American approach to the conflict has been to launch air strikes as part of an international coalition it leads, as well as equipping and training Iraqi forces.
Iran meanwhile has offered advisers, including the chief of an elite unit in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Qassem Sulaimani, to direct Shiite militias fighting against the extremists.
Iran has said it does not have combat troops fighting in Iraq, though some Revolutionary Guard members have been killed there.
Sulaimaini has accused the US of having “no will” to stop the Daesh group after the fall of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday.
It wasn’t clear whether Sulaimani’s remarks came as a direct response to Carter’s, though tensions remain high between the two countries amid negotiations over Iran’s contested nuclear programme.
The report in the daily newspaper Javan, which is seen as close to the Guard, quoted Sulaimani as saying the US didn’t do a “damn thing” to stop the extremists’ advance on Ramadi.
“Does it mean anything else than being an accomplice in the plot?” he reportedly asked, later saying the US showed “no will” in fighting Daesh.
Sulaimani said Iran and its allies are the only forces that can deal with Daesh.
“Today, there is nobody in confrontation with (the Daesh group) except the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as nations who are next to Iran or supported by Iran,” he said.
