On the second day of his visit to Iraq, President Rouhani asserted that "the Popular Mobilisation Forces have had, and will have, a very important role in consolidating stability, culture and solidarity in Iraq". At a separate engagement, he remarked that "sowing discord among the countries and people of the region, creating rifts among the ethnic and religious groups, justifying their illegitimate presence in the region, destroying Iraq and Syria and other countries in the region and finally, introducing themselves as the saviour and portraying a violent face for Islam were among the goals of the hegemonic power". "Today, everyone knows that these western powers did not have any role in the elimination of terrorists from the region", he added, further claiming that "terrorism has not finished yet, and it is possible that they make different problems for the peoples of the region, because the Americans are transferring them to Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Caucasus".