IRGC Commander: ISIL Posing Zero Threat to Iran

(FNA)- Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour underlined security along the country’s borders, and said that the Takfiri terrorists are unable to pose a threat to Iran.

"The ISIL is not seen as a threat to the Islamic Republic of Iran," Pakpour told FNA on Tuesday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran's Armed Forces don’t allow such threats to form and the IRGC makes its utmost efforts with full courage to defend the Islamic Republic of Iran and we are not at all concerned about an ISIL threat," he added.

In relevant remarks last Tuesday, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi underlined that the ISIL is not able to even approach Iran's borders.

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

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

Also late in May, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani stressed The ISIL 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”.

ISIL “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 ISIL has evacuated areas closer than 40km to the Iranian border after receiving relevant warnings from Tehran.

"When the terrorist and Takfiri ISIL 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 ISIL 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.