Firouzabadi: ISIS No Threat to Iran

Firouzabadi: ISIS No Threat to Iran
Tue Jun 2, 2015 13:22:38

Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi emphasized that the ISIS is not able to even approach Iran's borders.

"The ISIS is no threat to us and we are determined to annihilate it if ever ISIS's footprints span to areas 40km away from our borders," Firouzabadi said in Tehran on Tuesday.

He stressed that the ISIS has never been present at the Iranian borders at all.

In relevant remarks on Saturday, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani stressed The ISIS terrorists don't dare to approach Iran's borders.

Speaking in an interview with the state TV, Shamkhani underlined that Iran is watching every terrorist activity of the Takfiri groups, which are “now very vulnerable” in their fight against the Iraqi government.

Referring to the Takfiri groups’ attempts to enter Iran via its Western borders, Shamkhani said, “We have been able to push them back."

He further said that Iran‘s support for Iraqis, including Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds, has managed to weaken the terrorist groups, adding that if Iran had not helped Iraq, “the situation of the country would have definitely changed”.

ISIS “threats against Baghdad”, or the Shiite holy shrines, as well as any Takfiri advance towards the Iranian borders are "considered the Islamic Republic's three redlines”, said the senior Iranian security official.

In January, Iranian Ground Force Commander Brigadier General Ahmadreza Pourdastan said the ISIS has evacuated areas closer than 40km to the Iranian border after receiving relevant warnings from Tehran.

"When the terrorist and Takfiri ISIS grouplet entered Iraq from the country's Western borders and reached near the Iranian borders, the Ground Force was fully ready to suppress the terrorist grouplet," Pourdastan said.

"At that time, in addition to full preparedness at the borders, we drew a redline 40km inside the Iraqi soil and underlined that if they passed this redline, they would be given a crushing response by the Islamic Republic of Iran's Armed Forces," he added.

The ISIS terrorist grouplet received the message and rapidly moved away from the specified areas, Pourdastan said.

He also reiterated the full preparedness of the Ground Force's different units to safeguard and defend the Iranian borders at any moment.

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