(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The ISIS terrorist group has invaded and carried out terrorist attacks in various countries but why has the notorious Takfiri group been unable to carry out operations inside Iran?
ISIS which has over the years occupied parts of Iraq including the country’s eastern province Diyala , where shares border with Iran, was unable to penetrate inside the Islamic Republic. Has ISIS been unable to carry out its nefarious terrorist acts in Iran due to the country’s superior security system or is the reason due to Iran not being part of ISIS’s destabilizing strategy?
Speaking in May 2015, Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan downplayed the possibility of ISIS's threat to Iran, but said Tehran would give a crushing response to any kind of threat posed to the country. "ISIS doesn’t have the power and capability to threaten the Iranian borders and we don’t assume this group to be a threat to us because presence (and growth) of ISIS is never tolerated by the Iranian society," Dehqan said.
Essentially, one of the major objectives of ISIS was to assemble at Iran’s borders and penetrate deeply into the country’s southern province of Khuzestan. However, Iran's Armed Forces defined red zone in Iraq from Iran’s border whereby any attack or movement by ISIS terrorists would be thwarted.
Iran Warned ISIS
In early 2015, the then commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces Pourdastan declared that Iran marked a 40-km red zone into the Iraqi border to warn terrorists of any infiltration attempt into Iran.
Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan said that the Iranian army warned ISIS not to attempt about any potential movement toward the Iranian border. The stern warning was issued in 2014 then the foreign-backed Takfiri terrorist group occupied swathes of Iraq’s territory. Since then Iran’s Armed Forces have been fully alert at the border with Iraq and have prevented many attempts by ISIS terrorists to penetrate and cross over into the country.
Iran thwarts ISIS attacks
According to Iranian military and intelligence officials, ISIS terrorists have made numerous attempts to carry out operations inside Iran at crowded events including the Tehran weekly Friday Prayers, Ashura mourning ceremonies, Month of Ramadan night of power prayers and the recent annual February 10 Islamic Revolution anniversary rallies. These plots have been thwarted by the country’s vigilant security forces. Iran's Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri announced that a number of militants affiliated to ISIS terrorist group, who had planned to sabotage rallies marking this year’s anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, were arrested near the capital. On July 4, 2016, the Iranian Intelligence Ministry released a video surveillance footage of a number of ISIS terrorists who were arrested in Tehran before carrying out a series of planned bombing raids.
Iran Army commandoes in a training session
In September 20, Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces arrested two terrorists of Pakistani nationality in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan. According to a statement by the IRGC, the terrorists had been funded by Saudi Arabia and had received intelligence assistance from spy agencies of enemy states.
Iran’s stability outstanding
Iran among the few countries in the world with outstanding stability and even the notorious Israeli regime spy-cum terrorist agency, Mossad, has been unable to disrupt the country’s security. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6 and US Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, are also among the foreign spy agencies which have failed in their attempts to ignite insecurity in Iran. These foreign spy agencies have pursued a strategy of using terrorist groups such as ISIS to carry out attacks inside Iran but their schemes have hit a brick wall. ISIS has been unable to attack Iran due to Iran’s powerful security agencies and also more importantly, the Takfiri terrorist group does not have any support base within the Iranian society unlike in countries such as Saudi Arabia where the Takfiri terrorist group has sympathizers across the social spectrum.
Iran’s experience in tackling MKO terrorists
Another important factor that has prevented ISIS from penetrating inside Iran is the country’s valuable experience in tackling the Munafiqeen terrorist group, MKO, which in the early 80’s posed a major security challenge to the nascent Islamic Revolution. While ISIS elements had managed to enter Tehran, they were unaware that security agents stealthily trailed them from the border areas and busted them when they were about to carry out their cowardly acts.
Areas where ISIS dreams of spreading its tentacles
Despite the wicked plots by ISIS, backed by some Western, the Israeli regime and reactionary Arab regimes, this Takfiri terrorist groups has been unable to inflict harm on Iran.
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