Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 7
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Hossein Hamedani said that Iran has extended its influence to Iraq and Palestine.
"Today we have taken our borders to Samara and Baghdad, as well as Palestine," Hamedani said, Iran's ISNA news agency reported Feb. 7.
He also claimed that at least ten countries have demanded Iran to take part in fighting the IS ('Islamic State') group.
"Over ten countries wrote letters to Iran and asked for the Islamic Republic's help in fighting the IS," the IRGC commander said without unveiling further details.
Some western and Iraqi media have underscored the significant role of Iranian forces in fighting the IS in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iranian officials said the Islamic Republic gives only advice and organizational structure to the Iraqi forces.
The IS group killed a high-ranking general of the IRGC, Hamid Taghavi, in Samara city in central Iraq on Dec. 27. IRGC announced that Taghavi was advising Iraqi troops and Shiite militias in the battleground.
Some military and political officials in Iran do not hide the Islamic Republic's intend to spread its influence over the region.
Last December Deputy Commander of the IRGC, Hussein Salami said the balance of power in the region is changed in Iran's favor.
He said that the Iraqi peoples' militias are connected to Iran 's 1979 Islamic Revolution, adding Iraqi Shiite militias are tens times more than the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
In similar statements Iran's former foreign minister, Ali Akbar Velayati said mid-December that the Islamic Republic's current influence spreads from Yemen to Lebanon.
Velayati who is a senior advisor to the Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei added, "our current power was unsurpassable for anyone in the world."
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