New US National Security Strategy Full of Lies

Larijani made the remarks, addressing the first conference of Iranian, Pakistani, Afghan, Chinese, Russian and Turkish officials in Pakistan on challenges of fighting terrorism on Sunday.

He noted that certain parts of the document need further explanation, and said, "It says that the US and its allies have fully annihilated the ISIL and al-Qaeda in Iraq and Syria and it seems these countries are in asleep as they themselves have paved the ground for the rise of terrorism in these states (Iraq and Syria), but try to rebrand the efforts made by Iran, Russia and Turkey under their own name while the US has played no role in this regard."

Larijani added that another part of the document claims that the US has destroyed drug trafficking gangs while production of narcotics in Afghanistan has grown 45 times since the US and NATO deployed their forces in the country in 2001.

He also referred to the claim about the US fight against the proliferation of the Weapons of Mass Destruction, and said, "Actually, no country has as many WMDs as the US does."

US President Donald Trump unveiled a new "America First" national security strategy that promised to prioritize US economic interests and named China and Russia as "competition" that threaten to harm the country's security.

The Trump administration unveiled its national security strategy last Monday, vowing to put the interests of American citizens first on a range of issues, including "combatting terrorism", increasing border control, enforcing strict immigration policies, and promoting the US economy.

Trump claimed the US has dealt the ISIL "one defeat after another" - and reclaimed "almost 100 percent" of the territory the group once held in Iraq and Syria.