MEMRI May 25, 2015 Clip No. 4927
Video:
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4927.htm

IRGC Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani to Obama: You Lack Determination
to Confront ISIS and Defend Iraq

Following are excerpts from an address by the commander of the IRGC Quds
Force, General Qassem Suleimani, delivered on May 25, 2015:

Qassem Suleimani: Mr. Obama, how far is the Al-Asad Airbase, where your
planes are stationed, from Ramadi? How many kilometers is it? How can it
possibly be that under the pretext of protecting the (Iraqi) nation, you
have installed (forces) in that country and formed a coalition, and yet have
done nothing?
[...]
This can only mean that you are an accomplice in this plot. This can only
mean that you lack any determination to confront that entity (ISIS).
[...]
As human beings, we cannot tolerate it when the nations around us find
themselves in dire straits. Islamic evidence supports this as well. We have
a religious duty to support them. But there is another important reason:
This serves our national interest. By seeking our national interests, we do
not seek specific profits. We do not need anything from Iraq, or from any
other country. On the contrary, we are helping all of them.
[...]
(ISIS) is a plague. It is a great catastrophe. When a neighbor is afflicted
with plague, cholera, or a great catastrophe, what public health measures
would we take to protect our people? We would enforce a quarantine on our
borders. We would monitor all the people passing through. We would help that
country contain that disease, so that it does not pass to our own country.
How does ISIS maintain its economy? It is from the oil wells of Kirkuk and
of Deir Al-Zor in Syria. To where does it export this oil? They do not
export this oil in 20-liter cans. They transport it in oil tankers. It is
not that they have just one oil tanker. They have thousands. Where do these
tankers go? Underground? Or do they travel above ground, through the land of
countries, which are part of your anti-ISIS international coalition?

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent,
non-profit organization providing translations of the Middle East media and
original analysis and research on developments in the region. Copies of
articles and documents cited, as well as background information, are
available on request.
MEMRI holds copyrights on all translations. Materials may only be used with
proper attribution.

The Middle East Media Research Institute
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: [202] 955-9070 Fax: [202] 955-9077 E-Mail: memri@memri.org
Search previous MEMRI publications at our website: www.memri.org