Iran Tells U.S.: We Were Invited to Iraq and Syria, What About You?

Tehran: A top Iranian military commander says that the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been asleep for the past 40 years if he thinks Iran will bend to America's demand that they withdraw from Syria.

Responding to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's recent policy speech targeting Iran's presence in Iraq and Syria, Brigadier General Yadollah Javani argued it was the U.S. that was unwelcome.

Commander for the elite Islamic Revolution Guards political affairs wing, said that Pompeo's remarks "indicate that he has been sleeping over the past 40 years and is unaware of what has happened during these years in the world and the region." 

The newly appointed top U.S. diplomat devoted his first major foreign policy speech on Monday to condemning the Islamic Republic that toppled a pro-US monarchy following the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, Pompeo said, "Iran must withdraw all forces under Iranian command throughout the entirety of Syria."

In response to this, Javani said, "Iran has been present in Iraq and Syria at the invitation of the legitimate governments of these countries and sided with the regional nations based on the common interests of the countries. If anyone should leave the region, it would be the meddlesome US, which has done nothing but damaging the region during these years."

Pompeo accused Iran of supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon and and the resistance movements in the occupied Palestine. He vowed to unleash "the strongest sanctions in history" against Tehran just the weeks after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal that is still supported by rest of the world, including China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K.

Braving harsh economic sanctions and an eight year imposed war Islamic Republic has been on ascendance eversince spreading its influence across the resource rich Middle East.

Iran which is closely aligned to Hezbollah and, to a lesser extent, Hamas and other Muslim groups across Iraq and Syria has contributed to the defeat of the ISIS and allied groups in the region.

Besides Iran enjoys close relations with both the Iraqi and Syrian governments. Syria was a staunch supporter of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution that ousted the shah, who had already been once reinstalled by a CIA coup in 1953, and the two remained allies when Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded Iran in 1980 with the US support.