Iran warns terrorists away from borders
A senior commander for Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) has warned terrorist groups operating in the country’s northwest to leave Iran’s border areas.
“We warn terrorist groups to either move far enough from [Iran’s] border areas or wait for crushing strikes by the [Islamic Revolution Guard] Corps,” IRNA quoted Deputy IRGC Commander Brigadier General Hossein Salami as saying on Tuesday.
The Ground Forces of the IRGC launched new operations against the US- backed Party for Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) earlier this month.
The move came after the members of the US- backed PJAK terrorist group refused to clear their forces out of Iran’s northwestern areas within a one-month grace period offered by the IRGC.
Salami said the IRGC’s campaign in Iran’s northwestern mountains carried the message that the country would not tolerate the presence of any terrorist group that is a product of US strategies and would firmly confront it.
Salami said the “unilateral presence and intervention” of the United States in the Persian Gulf region causes insecurity and instability in regional countries.
“The US is trying to compensate for its security failures by spreading the waves of insecurity into Afghanistan and Iraq’s neighboring areas,” the Iranian commander stated.
He also said that the anti-PJAK military operations would continue until the full restoration of security in the region and a complete removal of the sources of terror.
He went on to say that the Iranian Armed Forces are fully prepared to “neutralize any act of sedition on any scale” to maintain Iran’s national security.
Salami further called on terrorist groups stationed in the northwest of the country to enjoy the sanctuary of the Islamic forgiveness by laying down their weapons.
US- backed PJAK is an offshoot of the US- backed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — listed as a terrorist organization by many countries and international bodies — and regularly engages in armed clashes with Iranian security personnel along the country’s western borders with Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
