ISIL Too Petty to Be a Threat to Iran Borders: Leader’s Advisor
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iran does not consider the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorist group to be at a level to pose a threat to the country’s borders, a top military aide to Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said.
Speaking in an academic meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said ISIL is too weak in Iran’s view to be capable of invading the country or threatening its borders.
He, however, emphasized the need for preventive measures against the ISIL terrorist group, while making it clear that Tehran “does not intend to be involved in clashes or war in the region.”
The top general said ISIL should be fought off inside Iraq and Syria.
ISIL is a militant group operating in Iraq and Syria which is believed to be supported by the West and some regional Arab countries. The terrorist group claims as an independent state the territory of Iraq and Syria, with implied future claims intended over more of the Levant, including Lebanon, occupied Palestine, Jordan, Cyprus, and Southern Turkey.
The ISIL militants made advances in northern and western Iraq over summer 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the militants, have blunted the edge of the ISIL offensive.
