ISIS Threatens: More Attacks Against Iranians Are Coming

The Islamic State group, ISIS, on Wednesday, June 7, announced in a statement that its members were responsible for the attacks in Tehran on that day and threatened that more attacks against Iranians are on the way. According to Reuters, ISIS, which calls itself the Islamic Caliphate, stated in its announcement regarding Iran that "the Caliphate will not miss any opportunity to shed their blood until Sharia law is implemented in Iran." On Wednesday, June 7, two teams of armed individuals attacked the Iranian Parliament and the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic in Tehran, resulting in a total of 12 deaths and about 42 injuries, with the attackers also being killed. The Islamic Republic of Iran implements Islamic Sharia law according to Shia principles, and ISIS has repeatedly declared that it considers Shia Muslims apostates and fights against them. Iran is also one of the main supporters of the Iraqi government in the battle against ISIS, providing assistance to organize Iraqi Shia militias in the war against ISIS. Iran has also been a major supporter of Bashar al-Assad's government in the Syrian civil war against ISIS and other opposition forces. The new threat from ISIS against Iran comes at a time when the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced on the same day that it would take revenge on the perpetrators of the attacks in Tehran and their "supporters." Previously, on March 26 of this year, ISIS had also threatened Iran by releasing a video titled "The Land of Persia; From Yesterday to Today" in Persian. In this 36-minute video, a masked man read a message addressed to Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, stating: "O Khamenei, you cursed individual who holds the so-called Islamic Republic in your hands, rest assured that we will soon bring your house down upon you." The Islamic State accused Iran in this video of suppressing Sunni Muslims for centuries, and one of the men present in the video stated: "We will conquer Iran and return this country to the Sunnis as it once was." The speaker in the video further stated that "Iran chants slogans against America and Israel, but Jews in this country are safe and are protected, and they have synagogues and places of worship in Isfahan and Tehran." Earlier, on November 16, 2015, Ahmadreza Pourdastan, the commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Forces, referred to ISIS's threats following the Paris attacks, saying: "ISIS has threatened that the options after France are Russia and Iran, and in this regard, the Iraqi Foreign Minister also issued a necessary warning, but the Iranian Army declares that it is not afraid of these threats." Meanwhile, Mohammad Ismail Kowsari, a member of the Defense Committee of the Iranian Parliament and a former senior commander of the IRGC, had sarcastically told French officials a few days before Ahmadreza Pourdastan's remarks that "if France cannot ensure the safety of its people against ISIS, it should leave it to Iranian advisors."