Just ten days ago at a provincial governors’ meeting, Iran’s minister of interior Rahmani Fazli firmly rejected any possibility that ISIS would attack Iran. Yesterday, at a meeting of provincial security chiefs he reversed that confidence and warned that the extremist insurgents across the country’s western borders actually had plans to attack Iran and called on the intelligence and security forces to be prepared.

Fazli’s remarks which received widespread coverage in domestic and even foreign media were made after foreign media reported that Iran’s leader ayatollah Khamenei had agreed for the country’s military to work with the US in Iraq regarding ISIS, reports that were officially denied by both sides, forcing the foreign media to publish proof to support their reports.

On the sidelines of a government seminar for the political, security and social governor deputies yesterday, Fazi said, “ISIS has extensive plans and according to their documents they have plans to attack our country and other countries. Iran however is more powerful than to allow a small group to attack us.”

He continued, “Some Afghan and Pakistani residents planned to join ISIS in Iraq by going through our country. We stopped this and arrested a number of them. We did not find any instances of recruitment for ISIS. People at the frontiers and the security forces are completely alert and we have full control over the borders.”

Organizing a meeting for the security chiefs of provinces is not a routine ministry of interior event and has raised questions about its purpose. Fazli responded to such questions by saying, “We hold such gatherings once every few months to review the latest security developments and notify the policies of the ministry to the governors. At this meeting, the conditions of our eastern and western frontiers were reviewed. We have the necessary readiness to provide security to the frontiers but had to examine these conditions with the security-political governor deputies.”

Just last month Fazli had assured provincial governors that ISIS did not pose a danger to Iran’s provinces.

The commander of Iran’s police force Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam who was also at the emergency gathering of provincial security chiefs had revealed that some families had said that their children had joined ISIS. “ISIS is a savage and terrorist movement. Some families have reported to us that their children have joined ISIS. But this is not alarming because we are in full readiness,” he had said. “The recent operations by the Iraqi army bring this prospect that ISIS will be driven away from our borders. We do not face ISIS forces on any of our borders. We have also not witnessed any money being collected for ISIS on our borders. This group has no attraction for our people. Some Iraqi Kurds may be tricked by ISIS but they are not a threat to our security because anti-SAIS sentiments are very strong in our country.”

A few weeks earlier, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejhei had announced the arrest of a number of individuals for cooperating with ISIS.

These security developments take place as foreign reports point to Iran’s concerns about the possibility of ISIS attacking Iran resulting in ayatollah Khamenei to approve cooperation between Iran and the US in this regard. Zarif’s remarks in this regard seem to confirm such a development even though officials have denied it.

Speaking at a live television event, Zarif said, “Americans have not been very serious about ISIS till now. They had supported the group in various ways in Syria before. This is a threat to the whole region and requires international cooperation.”

Nazanin Kamdar
Rooz online