Rouhani rejects allegations of Iran military presene in Iraq

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has rejected allegations about the deployment of Iranian forces in Iraq, expressing Tehran’s readiness to provide any help upon Baghdad’s request to fight Takfiri terrorists.
“The issue of Iranian forces’ engagement [in Iraq] has not been raised so far,” Rouhani said in a Saturday press conference in Tehran marking the first anniversary of his election.
Except for providing consultations in certain cases, Rouhani stressed, Iran will not engage in any military operations in other countries.
“If Iraq wants any help from us, we will study it. There has been no request so far. We are prepared to provide any assistance but within the framework of international law and based on the Iraqi people’s demands,” he pointed out.
The Iranian president also dismissed reports about ongoing cooperation between Iran and the US over the crisis in Iraq, saying, “The Americans may also want to help, but I haven’t received any word on that so far.”
Rouhani also warned Takfiri groups against conducting any terrorist operations near the Iranian borders, saying, “If any terrorist group wants to get close to our borders and we feel the threat, we will definitely respond with every possible means.”
The extremist militants from ISIL have captured two provincial capitals this week, namely Tikrit in the Salahuddin Province and Iraq’s second city of Mosul in the northern Nineveh Province.
Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the extremist terrorists, who have threatened to take their acts of violence to other Iraqi cities, including the capital.
Baghdad does not appear to be in imminent danger from a similar assault, although foreign backed terrorists have stepped up car bombings and suicide attacks in the capital in recent months.