Tehran, Iran, May 31
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran says there are three red lines regarding the situations in Iraq, which if violated, the Islamic Republic would take action.
Threats against Iranian borders, Baghdad, or the holy shrines are three red lines with the Islamic Republic, said Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, the IRIB reported May 31.
He dismissed as belonging to the past a previous announcement by an Iranian official that if the Islamic State moved any closer than 40 kilometers to the Iranian borders, Iran will respond.
Iran's Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli on May 25 warned the Islamic State (IS) group to stay 40 kilometers away from the Islamic Republic border with Iraq.
Iran's security and defense organizations have discovered and foiled all Islamic State's terrorist acts in the vicinity of the Iranian borders, he said.
"The dangerous presence of terrorist groups around 40 kilometers from Iranian borders goes back to the year 1393 (previous Iranian calendar year which ended March 20) when we managed to set them back hundreds of kilometers," Shamkhani noted.
Iranian Army Commander Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said on May 24 that last year the IS group intended to enter Iran, adding, they had forecasted caches of ammunition and troops in Iran's border provinces and were ready to launch terrorist operations, explosions and riots after entering Iran's territory.
The Islamic Republic army organized five combat brigades in less than three days to confront the group, the commander stated.
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