Iranian National Security Council Secretary Ali Shamkhani has said that Islamic State militant is hatching terror plots against Iran, while claiming to have thwarted several planned bombings in Tehran and other cities.
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The reports didn’t identify those arrested and interrogated, though it called them “takfiris”, a derogatory term in both Arabic and Farsi referring to Sunnis who accuse other Muslims of being infidels.
The country’s Ministry of Intelligence released a statement Monday saying it had unearthed “criminal plans” by “Takfiri Wahhabi” for a series of bombings across Iran specifically targeting religious events planned for coming days.
Iran is now assisting the governments in Iraq and Syria against Islamic State (ISIS) and has fought Sunni militants on its own soil who claim they are fighting on behalf of the country’s Sunni-minority. Relations between the two have frayed following the kingdom’s January execution of a prominent Shiite cleric and subsequent attacks by protesters on Saudi diplomatic posts in Iran.
There is much experience with Iran’s security and police apparatuses regarding all types of war, and foreign and western countries eagerly ask Iran to share its experience with them and they feel safer in Tehran than Paris, he added.
In addition to making enemies with ISIS, Iran has also angered Saudi Arabia in recent months.
“In the operations by the Intelligence Ministry, the terrorists were detained and a number of bombs, ready to explode, and a sizeable amount of materials for making bombs were seized from the terrorists”, the statement said. In response, Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran.
It was unclear whether that included the plot announced on Monday by state television.
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A report by Fars news agency said on Thursday that the “terrorists” belonged to outlawed “counter-revolutionary terrorist groups”, including the Kurdish Democratic Party, who had crossed the northwestern borders into the country. This includes the preparation of derivative works of, or the incorporation of such content into other works.
