IS sent warning letters to Middle East embassies

By Arash Karami

Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian said that after the self-styled Islamic State (IS) took over Mosul in early June, it sent letters to the embassies of countries in the region warning them not to take action against the group.

“After the fall of Mosul, this terrorist group stressed in a letter to all of the embassies that they are a revolutionary group that was formed to attain the rights of Sunnis and for other countries to not attack them, and they will leave the citizens of those countries alone,” Abdollahian said.

He did not say what else was in the letter. Iran was one of the first countries to assist the Iraqi military and Kurdish forces in Iraq in the fight against IS. The United States is also leading an anti-IS coalition that includes a number of Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, conducting air strikes against IS positions in Iraq and Syria.

US President Barack Obama met with defense officials from 20 different countries to discuss IS on Oct. 14. He said that there are about 60 countries in the coalition, which he described as a “long-term campaign.”
Turkey, a NATO country that shares a border with Syria and Iraq, has not yet joined the coalition but according to Kurdish Regional Government President Massoud Barzani, has supplied weapons. On the complex web of competing interests in the anti-IS coalition, Abdollahian said, “We have conflicting interests with our Turkish friends on the issue of Syria. And we told them and the Americans: The issue of [President] Bashar al-Assad staying or leaving will be decided by the Syrian people.” He added that Iran is not trying to keep Assad in the Syrian presidency for life, "but we will not allow one of our prime allies in the resistance to fall to terrorists.”

Abdollahian said that before the United States conducted airstrikes against IS inside Syria, Washington informed Iran and Syria that it “had no plans to hit Syrian bases.” Abdollahian said despite the notification, they did not trust the Americans.

He added that if the anti-IS coalition changes its policy to regime change for Syria, Iran “will take any action that is necessary to defend an ally.” He also said that Iran had warned Turkey, which has received a great deal of criticism for its inaction on the IS-besieged Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobani, not to enter Syria.

Abdollahian said that after the fall of Mosul, Tehran told the United States to act quickly to help Iraq but that Washington was “not in a hurry and will wait until the political process is completed.” A US precondition for assisting the Iraqi army was that then-Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki drop his bid for a third term.

Of the countries involved in the anti-IS coalition, Abdollahian said that he was “surprised that countries that have attacked Libya and Syria did not participate in the Zionist regime’s 51-day war against the people of Gaza.”

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