Persian Gulf Arab states rulers promoting Takfiri Daesh terrorist group ideologies: Iraqi official

Iraqi National Security Adviser Faleh al-Fayad (Photo by AFP)

A top Iraqi official says Persian Gulf Arab states are cultivating the rise of the Daesh group as a way of bolstering their own failing governments. 

Iraqi National Security Adviser Faleh al-Fayad warned on Wednesday that "some regimes have been devoting resources to defending those ideologies."

“Some rich (Persian) Gulf countries have been using the measures of their wealth to giving legitimacy to these groups," he said, speaking at the Royal United Services Institute in London. 

The same countries are "stoking sectarianism" to rally support as they face economic crises due to falling oil prices, Fayad said, apparently referring to Saudi Arabia.

The extremist ideology of Wahabbism is the key driver of violence across the Middle East which is promoted by Saudi Arabia and followed by Daesh and other Takfiri groups. 

“We know about the real perpetrators” who are spreading the Daesh ideology, as well as, funding and training the terrorist group, the Iraqi official said.

A file photo of Takfiri militants in an unknown location.

In an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Tuesday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote that Riyadh has spent tens of of billions of dollars exporting Wahhabism through thousands of mosques and madrasas across the world.  

"Virtually every terrorist group abusing the name of Islam — from Al Qaeda and its offshoots in Syria to Boko Haram in Nigeria — has been inspired by this death cult," the article said.

‘Daesh threatens entire world’

Fayyad warned that Daesh poses security threats to the entire world. “Here is no area which is protected from the invasion of Daesh.”

The top Iraqi adviser called on the international community to seriously oppose the Arab regimes which are supporting terrorism.

“The scene is clearer now, not because the world didn’t know about it before, but because the danger is threatening everybody,” he said.

Daesh terrorists began their reign of terror in Iraq in June 2014. Back then, Daesh militants seized control over huge swathes of land in northern and western parts of the country.

Iraqi armed forces are set for the final offensive to liberate the northern city of Mosul, which is the last Daesh stronghold in the country.